Craig Jones is coming back to the porch — and the man behind the camera this time already made his own Friday once.
The Hollywood Reporter reported Tuesday that filmmaker Lawrence Lamont has signed on to direct Last Friday, the fourth installment of Ice Cube's Friday franchise and the first new entry in nearly 25 years. Ice Cube, who co-created the franchise, wrote the screenplay and will produce and star, returning as Craig Jones. Bob Teitel and CubeVision's Michael Gruber produce alongside him, with Jeff Kwatinetz executive producing, at New Line Cinema — the studio that has housed the series since the original.
Lamont is not a random hire, and the résumé is the story. The Detroit filmmaker came up directing music videos for Big Sean, J. Cole, Jhené Aiko, Snoop Dogg and Nas, directed four episodes of Rap Sh!t, and then made his feature debut with One of Them Days — Keke Palmer and SZA tearing through one desperate, funny day in Los Angeles trying to beat a rent deadline. If that shape sounds familiar, it should: critics spent that film's whole run comparing it to Friday, and audiences treated it like a franchise picture anyway. It made more than $51 million worldwide on a reported $14 million budget, sat atop Netflix's movie chart for four weeks, and earned Lamont the African American Film Critics Association's Breakthrough Director Award and an NAACP Image Award nomination. Lamont knows what the assignment is. "Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that one day I'd help reignite this legendary franchise," he wrote on Instagram, reposting the Reporter story, adding that he hopes "to honor everything that made these films special while bringing my own vision, heart, and perspective to the story."
Some honesty about the road here: Last Friday itself is not breaking news. Cube has been pushing a fourth Friday for years — through development stalls and public frustration with the studio's pace — and the project's New Line footing and its $11.4 million California tax-credit award were both reported before today. What Tuesday actually delivered is the missing piece: a director, signed. The production plan THR restated is real paperwork, not a promise — a shoot in Southern California, 40 filming days, 43 cast members and 150 crew under the state incentive program.
The original Friday (1995), directed by F. Gary Gray and written by Cube and DJ Pooh, followed Craig and Chris Tucker's Smokey through one increasingly complicated day in South Central Los Angeles and became one of the most quoted comedies ever made. Next Friday (2000) brought in Mike Epps as Day-Day; Friday After Next followed in 2002 — and then the porch went quiet for nearly a quarter-century. Cube is, so far, the only confirmed name on the call sheet. Chris Tucker is in talks to return as Smokey after sitting out both sequels — talks, not a deal. Kym Whitley has said she'll be back as Auntie Suga. Earlier reporting around the project has carried a gentrification storyline and Cube aiming at April 2027; neither is locked.
Previously's Take: sequels that arrive 24 years late usually run on nostalgia and fumes. This one has a receipt the others don't — One of Them Days already proved the Friday formula still works when the neighborhood is filmed by somebody who loves it, and it printed money doing it. Cube didn't hire a caretaker for his legacy. He hired the one working director whose debut was measured against the original — and now gets to be graded on the real thing.
Sources: The Hollywood Reporter (Oct. 27, 2026 — the signing; read via the outlets carrying its reporting: ComingSoon, Blex Media, Urban Hollywood 411, HotNewHipHop, QNC News, Dark Horizons, CBR); Lamont's Instagram statement via Urban Hollywood 411.
