Universal has beat out three other studios in a bidding war to acquire the rights to Humbug, according to Deadline. The studio is trying to re-team Ice Cube and Tim Story for the project, who were the respective star and director of Barbershop, Ride Along, and its upcoming sequel, presumably titled 2 Ride 2 Long.
In Humbug’s gritty reboot of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Cube would play a powerful real-estate mogul who is visited by a cabal of henpecking deceased weirdos, adding a topical twist to the classic fable. The roles of those ghosts, who would have the thankless job of provoking Ice Cube, have yet to be cast.
Ice Cube is reportedly in negotiations to make eight figures for the film, a payday that would add considerably to Cube’s existing fortune and possibly making him wealthy and surly enough to be visited by the specter of his former partner Eazy-E, followed by the ghosts of Biggie, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, and hologram Tupac.