We learned last year that MGM’s Barbershop franchise is getting ready to reopen with Ice Cube planning to reprise his leading role. Today, Deadline reports that MGM has hired The Best Man and The Best Man Holiday helmer Malcolm D. Lee to direct Barbershop 3. Cedric the Entertainer is also said to be close to a lock to return as well.
Ride Along helmer Tim Story directed the original 2002 comedy with Cube starring as Calvin Palmer, Jr., a man who inherited a South Side Chicago barbershop from his father. He spends his normal days working in the shop, interacting with co-workers and the surrounding community.
Cube and Cedric the Entertainer starred in both the original film and the 2004 sequel, Barbershop 2: Back in Business, directed by Kevin Rodney Sullivan. That film also featured a “guest appearance” by Queen Latifah, who then headlined the Barbershop franchise spinoff, Beauty Shop, in 2005. It was said last year that Latifah would likely return as well, although her name is not mentioned in today’s update.
Lee is also attached to helm a third Best Man film, set for release on April 15, 2016.
Cube is producing Barbershop 3 alongside Matt Alvarez, Bob Teitel and George Tillman Jr. His next work as a producer to see release is the NWA biopic, Straight Outta Compton, in which he is played by his own son, O’Shea Jackson Jr. That one hits theaters August 14, 2015 and you can check out the recently-released trailer right here.
