While Ice Cube’s musical gigs may have cooled down for now, his acting career is as hot as ever. Coming straight off the success of Are We Done Yet?, Cube produces and stars in Screen Gems’ new comedy First Sunday as Durell, a petty and blundering criminal who plans to rob up a church with his best friend LeeJohn (Tracy Morgan) after they’re told they have to pay the local thug $17,000 or suffer the consequences.
The two come up with a desperate scheme when they learn that on the first Sunday of every month, their neighborhood church takes in a large collection from the congregation. However, their plan goes terribly wrong when the church members make it hard on the bumbling pair. Durell and LeeJohn are forced to take them hostage when they won’t give up the location of the money and have to spend the night with the congregation they took captive at gunpoint as a result.
ComingSoon.net visited the set in Los Angeles at the Faith United Presbyterian Church and watched the comedic actors attempt to shake the money out of the church goers.
The scene started off with LeeJohn sitting at a table with his head down, sweat glistening from his face and a gun in front of him. He looked frustrated and as if he didn’t know what to do since the initial plan of stealing the money from the church wasn’t working out.
Durell is in another room standing behind him against the wall watching his best friend. LeeJohn then gets up and goes into the other room with Durell. The two begin to argue about what to do and now Durell is the one aggravated.
He storms into the room, where the priest (Chi McBride) is tied up and the church members are being held against their will, waving his gun and yelling for them to tell him where the money is.
“I know you know where the money is,” Durell says sternly. “The sooner you tell me, the sooner we will get out of here. If I have to, I will search this place brick by brick until we find the money.”
The church has no air and the congregation is annoyed and hot. They are fanning themselves down and instead of being cooperative, they refuse to tell the two where the money is and they are giving Durell attitude on top of it.
The members begin to argue amongst themselves and a woman passes out. They yell at Durell to get a towel and to let them out of the room because it’s so hot.
It’s obvious to everyone the guys aren’t experienced thieves or really criminals at all. The church members can see right through them and are forcing them to deal with much more than they bargained for when they came up with the desperate plan. Durell tries to hold his own with the group, but they know that if he was serious, he probably would have shot one of them by now. The scene almost makes you feel empathetic for the two because they aren’t getting what they came for and instead of the church goers being sympathetic to their situation, they are making it just that more difficult on them.
While on-set, ComingSoon.net got a chance to interview writer/director David E. Talbert, Ice Cube, Katt Williams and Tracy Morgan. You can read the interviews by clicking the links below!
Writer/Director David E. Talbert
Ice Cube – Durell
Katt Williams – Rickey
Tracy Morgan – LeeJohn
First Sunday opens in theaters on January 11, 2008.
