So today is the day I officially feel old. Variety reports that Ice Cube has made a deal with Dimension Films for his comedy script Janky Promoters; a title that had me running to Urban Dictionary to figure out what the heck 'Janky' meant. But mid-life crisis aside, back to the real news: Cube will be producing the film along with Dimension and his partner Matt Alvarez, and will also star.

The story centers on two hip-hop promoters who are given the chance to put together an all-star show in California. When the two discover that they are in way over their heads, wackiness ensues. Bob Weinstein tells Variety, "This feels a lot like Uptown Saturday Night to me, a caper film where you have these music promoters who are slightly shady but are good enough guys that you root for them, this is going to be R-rated, and it appeals right to the core of Cube's audience." Thankfully, Cube is getting out of the kiddie flick business (at least for now) and Promoters is his first script since the Friday series finished back in 2002.

Do you remember the news that Fred Durst was working on his second directorial gig, a sports drama called Comeback? Well, for some reason, the film is now untitled (why change it to untitled when you at least have a working title!?), and it's got a cast to boot. But first, to refresh your memory: Ice Cube signed on to star in and produce the film, which is about a young, female quarterback named Jasmine Plummer who became the first girl to play in the Pop Warner football tournament. Cube had picked the role of Plummer's uncle and mentor.

Now Reuters reports that Keke Palmer has signed on to star as Jasmine. You might remember her from Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion, or more likely, as the spelling fiend in Akeelah and the Bee. She's going to be joined by Tasha Smith (Why Did I Get Married?), Jill Marie Jones (Girlfriends), Matt Craven (Disturbia), and Garret Morris (The Jamie Foxx Show). Oh yeah, and Dash Mihok, who I left separate because, well, I have a soft spot for Benvolio, and I wanted to give him his own sentence.

Anyhow... There you have it. Comeback is still on its way, just as a different yet-to-be-released/decided name. In the meantime, I'm still waiting to see Durst's first -- The Education of Charlie Banks.

News of a Welcome Back, Kotter remake first made waves back in March of 2006. Tom Grady was tapped to write and direct, and Ice Cube was cast to take over the role that Gabe Kaplan made famous -- Mr. Kotter, the man who went back to his high school alma mater to teach some challenging remedial students. Kotter also happened to be the show that helped make John Travolta (Vinnie Barbarino) famous -- before Saturday Night Fever or Grease came around. Although it has been a few years since the project started to cook up, Ice Cube recently talked with MTV about the pic, and what is planned for this new version... that is, if the strike wraps up and this feature gets out of development hell.

This remake will go urban, and Cube says: "We've got the same characters, they're just re-vamped to suit the times, totally different. It's like, flipped. With me playing Kotter, how couldn't it be?" This also means none of Kaplan's schtick: "No, I won't be going that far. You know me, I'm gonna flip it. It ain't gonna be no Gabe Kaplan sh-t." What will be the same? Who knows. He also says there's no Barbarino dance, or Epstein's phony letters. "The names are the same" seems to be Cube's mantra for this picture.

Considering the fact that he says it's "more of a Fast Times at Ridgemont High, not so much 'Up your nose with a rubber hose,'" I have to ask: what's the point? WHY keep the names if you're taking all of the things that make each character who they are and change them. I'm sorry, but people don't go see remakes just for the same names. I can't help but wonder why they couldn't use new names, maybe consider it a spin-off, or just giving a "based on" credit. Trying to bank on the fandom of a show doesn't work if you start off by saying that the only thing that remains the same is the basic premise and a handful of names.

See the expression on Ice Cube's face in this photograph? I wore that same expression for the entire running time of First Sunday. The transition of the holiday movie season into the barren movie wasteland of January is always a jarring one. For the past three months, it seems like I've seen nothing but Oscar-caliber movies -- masterful films by outstanding filmmakers working from amazing scripts. So maybe First Sunday just pales in comparison...

But I don't think so.

No, this is not yet another sequel to that terrific Ice Cube comedy Friday, as many have suspected. Sunday tells the story of "new" characters Durell (Cube) and LeeJohn (Tracy Morgan). As the movie opens, the boys are picked up by the cops for their involvement with some stolen wheelchairs. They are sentenced to 5,000 hours of community service, the owner of the wheelchairs comes to collect, and Durell finds himself broke. Things get even more desperate when Durell's ex-girlfriend (Regina Hall) tells him she intends to move to another state with his son...unless he can come up with $17,000 to pay off a debt. So Durell and LeeJohn do what anyone in their shoes would do -- they decide to rob a church. And of course, after a night amongst good Christian folk, they learn that crime is bad and God is good and blah blah blah.

This week on The Write Stuff, Cinematical speaks with David E. Talbert, writer and director of the new comedy/drama First Sunday. The film stars Ice Cube and Tracy Morgan as friends in a desperate situation who decide to rob a local church. At the church, they find a lot more resistance than they bargained for, in the form of Loretta Devine, Chi McBride, and Katt Williams.

Cinematical: Are you excited about the movie coming out?

David E. Talbert: Oh man, I'm wearing my wife out! We've been riding around looking at these billboards. Every time somebody tells me there's one that's popped up, I gotta go and find it.

Cinematical: You got your start as a playwright, and you've been doing that successfully for 15 years. Did you always want to be a writer?

DET: No, I was a radio announcer when I was in college and after. Somewhere in there, I had a breakup with my college sweetheart and I started writing "Somebody done somebody wrong" poems. And I was writing and crying and listening to Al Green every night. Then one night my Al Green record scratched, and when it scratched, I started reading those poems and I said "Wow, these aren't that bad." From there I wrote a long-form play and I put it away until about five years later when I saw the play Beauty Shop. I saw how much audiences were going crazy over it, and that's when I got bit.

When Variety first announced (though it had been confirmed earlier) that John Singleton would be directing a big-screen version based on the popular television series, The A-Team, they also mentioned that Ice Cube was in talks to star as B.A. Baracus -- a role once owned (and, some would argue, still owned) by Mr. T. Sure, the man has been busy churning out kiddie fare, like Are We There Yet (and its sequel), but if you ask me Cube is the only guy I see taking on this role, while also making it somewhat believable. He's loosened up a bit, but I'd like to think the dude still has some edge left.

BlackFilm recently sat down with Ice Cube while he was out promoting his latest "comedy" First Sunday, where they asked him about the role of B.A. Baracus. On whether he's considering it: "Hell yeah, especially with John Singleton directing!" On what he would bring to the character: "I wouldn't try to duplicate what Mr. T did, but I will have the same impact on you when you were little watching the TV show. I'm going to bring my own flavor to it and I am going to do the mohawk." Great -- sounds like he already has the role. So does he? "I don't know. They want me to do it if all the business works out right. I was a fan as a kid and that would be, not a dream come true, but it's definitely a good thing to do and I would put it on my resume for sure."

So, Ice Cube with a mohawk? Would Mr. T pity that fool? And who else could you see joining this film?

And now I present you with the giganto rumor of the day; one I'm not so sure I believe, but why not let you readers decide how legit this may or may not be. IESB is reporting that they've heard through one of their top secret sources that George Clooney has been offered the role of Duke in the upcoming live-action G.I. Joe movie. You might recall that folks were originally targeting Mark Wahlberg for this role, but that casting fell through. Now, it appears, Clooney's name has popped up for whatever reason. For those of you up to date on all things Clooney, you might be wondering why he would take on this role if he just opted out of Joe Carnahan's White Jazz because of hectic scheduling concerns. And considering Jazz was tapped to begin its production around the same time G.I. Joe was set to go, wouldn't Clooney still be too busy to film it?

Well, and here's where you'll need to take a giant leap, IESB claims Clooney turned down Jazz because he's itching to star in a big blockbuster. But is he? Really? IESB is still waiting to hear back from Clooney's reps, who will most certainly deny this whole thing (because that's what reps do), but even if he was offered the role (which might be true --why wouldn't you go after the big guns first?), I really can't see Clooney taking it. Personally, his schedule is packed. Not only is he finishing up the Coen Bros. new movie, but his latest directorial effort, Leatherheads, was pushed back to the spring because Clooney still had more work to do on it. I can't see him taking on a role that films this winter when he needs that time to complete and promote Leatherheads. Regardless of this whole thing, it will be interesting to see how casting unfolds for G.I. Joe, as they'll most likely target some top A-list actors for their main roles. Clooney, Wahlberg, who's next ... Ice Cube? (Shouldn't take you long to pick up that reference ....)

This year we'll get to see Fred Durst's The Education of Charlie Banks, and now we've got word on his next picture, as he aims to become the next in the line of "real directors" like Scorsese and Coppola. I've been dying to see Banks since I learned that two of its stars were Eva Amurri, who was absolutely excellent in Saved!, and Jesse Eisenberg, who was great in my beloved indie flick Roger Dodger. Variety gave the first flick a pretty solid review, so Durst might be onto something, even though it's hard to think of the Limp Bizkit front-man as a snappy new director. Now Variety is reporting that his second film will be a true-story sports drama called Comeback.

Ice Cube is going to star in and produce Comeback, which is based on the achievements of Jasmine Plummer -- an 11-year-old quarterback who brought her team to the Pop Warner tournament and became the first female to play in it. Cube will play the girl's uncle, who mentors her as she becomes the first gal quarterback. Prison Break writer Nick Santora adapted the story, and Akeelah and the Bee scribe Doug Atchison is currently whipping up a rewrite. I have to say that I'm impressed to see Durst picking some solid and serious fare to prove himself as a director. His first directorial effort has a great cast, and neither story is closely linked to his music roots, which helps to separate him from his past work.

In case you haven't noticed yet, Hollywood has become real interested in adapting comic books and graphic novels -- and actors who wouldn't normally take on this kind of material (um, Edward Burns?) are suddenly racing to acquire the next "hot" property. Personally, I've been waiting for Ice Cube to take off his diaper for awhile now; the man hasn't starred in a film that kicked ass since xXx: State of the Union, and even that wasn't very spectacular. Prior to that, he starred in the weird motorcycle flick Torque, but in all honesty I have to go all the way back to 1999 (and Three Kings) to find the last enjoyable film starring Ice Cube. Now, hopefully, that's about to change. Variety reports that Cube's shingle is circling a big-screen adaptation of the graphic novel 10, by Shannon Eric Denton and Keith Giffen. Gustin Nash and Jesse Cale have already adapted 10 for Dimension, and Cube would come onboard (most likely) as a producer and the film's star.

I'm already jazzed about this project, because the story has tons and tons of potential. How's this for a set up: Some guy receives a piece of junk mail informing him that he's in a competition with nine other people, and the last person left alive wins. At first he thinks it's bogus (my neurotic ass would be at the police precinct in 10 seconds), but when some dude with an ax shows up at his door, the game is officially on. I haven't read the graphic novel, although part of me wants to pick that sucker up, like, today. Writer Gustin Nash was also the guy hired to adapt one of my favorite books of all time -- Youth in Revolt. And if he can make that book work on the big screen (trust me, if you've read it, you'll know that's no small task), then I have very good feelings about 10. What about you?

As much as I know you're hoping that First Sunday is some sort of extension of Ice Cube's Friday franchise, I'm sorry to say that it's not. Nope, this is an entirely different film -- although it appears as if Cube is finally putting aside those cheesy family-friendly comedies in order to take on a project that might actually be worth seeing. When we first brought you news on First Sunday, all we knew at the time was that Ice Cube was set to star as one half of a team of thieves who decide to rob a church. Playwright David E. Talbert, who's made a name for himself writing "gospel-tinged" plays for the past 15 years, boarded the pic as its writer-director.

Now, Variety reports that a host of other thesps have joined the party; they include Tracy Morgan (I imagine he'll be Cube's partner-in-crime), Katt Williams, Malinda Williams, Regina Hall, Chi McBride and Loretta Devine. Sony's fairly successful genre label Screen Gems will be shoveling out this masterpiece, and I have to give them credit for mixing it up as of late. They scored hits with Stomp the Yard and The Messengers, and although word on Vacancy wasn't all that bad, it didn't do as well at the box office as its siblings. Next on the agenda for Screen Gems will be Resident Evil: Extinction and This Christmas. As far as Ice Cube goes, there is a chance we'll see him team back up with Chris Tucker for another Friday flick (what would they call this one, The Friday After the Third Monday of the Month?), although I wouldn't count on that happening anytime soon. Well, not unless you have about $40 million to waste on a crappy Tucker performance.

After taking a look at this weekend's box office numbers, I'm now convinced the rumor is indeed true -- Steven Spielberg can see into the future. Perhaps that's why he's been so hot on Shia LaBeouf, when the rest of us were all like, "Um, you mean that kid from The Battle of Shaker Heights? Really? You dig him?" Granted, if Disturbia opened up in the middle of January during what I like to call "Hollywood's version of spring training," then it's $23 million first place finish wouldn't have been such a big deal. However, Shia LaBeouf (whose last three films were Bobby, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints and The Greatest Game Ever Played) won this weekend's top spot by defeating some serious competition.

Shall we run down the list of top-notch actors LaBeouf out-box officed? Let's see, there's Will Ferrell, John Heder, Bruce Willis, Halle Berry, Hilary Swank and Ice Cube -- not to mention filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. I suppose one can make the argument that it wasn't so much Shia LaBeouf that attracted the crowds, but that Disturbia was the weekend's only new film geared toward the teenage audience. (Well, that's if you don't count the street-racing flick Redline which -- and I'm sure you'll agree -- didn't exactly shell out the dough when it came time for marketing. I'm sure most people showed up to the theater, saw the name 'Redline,' and thought it was some low-budget indie film about a red line.) Regardless, I think it's safe to say that Shia LaBeouf has officially arrived ... and just in time for a little film called Transformers, due out this July 4.

What do you think? Was Disturbia a fluke? Or does Shia really have a lot more fans than Catwoman, John McClane and that Pulp Fiction dude combined?

Sort of like Boyz N The Hood played for laughs, Friday was one of the few drug comedies that really made me laugh. It had a warm, laid-back feel to it, some laugh-out-loud lines, and a hilarious supporting cast. It starred Ice Cube when he still had some fire in his eyes, and is notable for being one of the only times Chris Tucker was anything but grating onscreen (Jackie Brown would be another - love him in that movie). Tucker was so funny in Friday, and his chemistry with Cube so perfect, that it was a little surprising to learn he wouldn't be back for the sequel. According to IMDb, the motormouthed comedian became a born-again Christian after his role in Money Talks (that movie would have made me take a hard look at my life and career, too), and chose to do the more family-friendly Rush Hour series instead.

Now it seems he may be changing his tune, and might be open to returning to the role that made him famous. Over at AICN, there's a link to an interview with Ice Cube where Iceman discusses the possibility of Tucker's return for a fourth Friday film. Cube understands that the only way to make the series vibrant again would be the return of Tucker as Smokey, and is determined to get New Line to cough up Tucker's outrageous price tag. I thought Next Friday was pretty weak, and I didn't see Friday After Next because the titles were just getting too ridiculous. I might check out a fourth with Tucker, but I pity the fool who has to try to come up with a name for that one. Friday After Friday After Next? Three Fridays From Now? I Still Know What You Did Next Friday?

There are good movies, there are bad movies, and then there are movies that leave virtually no impression whatsoever. Are We Done Yet? falls into the third category. I saw the movie on Monday night and I still have to rely heavily on my notes because the film was so very unmemorable. Are We Done Yet? is both a sequel and a remake: the main characters from Are We There Yet? return a year later in a storyline adapted from the 1948 film Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (and unofficially, The Money Pit). Ice Cube plays the Cary Grant role ... that's a sentence I never thought I would write.

Ice Cube's character from the first film, Nick Persons, has married his sweetheart Suzanne (Nia Long) and is assuming the role of stepdad towards her two children, Lindsey and Kevin. Lindsey is 13 and, believe it or not, Nick is concerned that she's wearing skimpy clothing and too much makeup, and spending too much time at the mall. And he thinks Kevin spends too much time indoors and needs to do male bonding things like fishing. After Suzanne announces she's pregnant with twins, it's time to leave the overcrowded condo for a house out in the country where the kids can thrive and Nick can work on his new sports magazine. (Suzanne apparently has no career that can't be discontinued.) Nick buys a gorgeous old house that starts to fall apart even before the sale is complete. Real-estate agent/contractor/midwife Chuck (John C. McGinley) agrees to help, but Nick is growing annoyed at the level of repairs needed as well as the intrusiveness of Chuck. Will the new house cause the family to fall apart, too? Will the audience please wake up now?

For those who still aren't convinced, Ice Cube wants you to know he's officially made the transition from hard-edged, marijuana-smoking rapper-actor to sweet, family-friendly urban comedian. With Are We Done Yet? (a sequel to the popular Are We There Yet?) hitting theaters this spring, Cube has signed on to star in yet another "urban-themed comedy," First Sunday. (Oh, and in case you're wondering, First Sunday is definitely not a sequel to Friday, Next Friday or Friday After Next. What's up -- how come Saturday never gets any love?)

Playwright David E. Talbert will make his directorial debut on the film, which revolves around two men who attempt to rob a church, but wind up being "saved" by the parishioners they take hostage. Pic will begin filming this May, with plans to hit theaters over next year's Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. Though he's also involved with an untitled comedy pitch over at New Line, as well as a big-screen version of Welcome Back, Kotter with The Weinstein Co., First Sunday will be Cube's next film. As far as Talbert goes, he's been writing urban, "gospel-tinged" plays for the past 15 years, and should transition into this new role fairly smoothly. That's nice, but remember when Ice Cube was cool?

After sucking down joint after joint in three Friday installments and replacing Vin Diesel as an ass-kicking super agent in XXX: State of the Union, Ice Cube has packed up his tough guy persona in order to settle down for some family fare. Having already starred in the light-hearted flick Are We There Yet (for which he's now shooting a sequel called Are We Done Yet), Variety reports Cube may take on yet another parenting role.

New Line has picked up an untitled comedy pitch off a concept brought to life by Richard Murphy and Blumhouse exec Tracy Underwood, with Murphy set to pen the script. Story revolves around a "social climber whose aspirations are threatened by a youth who shows up and calls him daddy." Blumhouse and Cube Vision will produce, while the Ice Man is circling the starring role. If this film fails, look for Cube to reprise his lovable marijuana-smoking character in Oh God, Please Tell Me It's Not Another Boring Friday.