Ice Cube has described how the now-infamous War of the Worlds film, in which he plays the lead role, was made during the Covid pandemic.
Appearing on a live stream with YouTuber Kai Cenat, the 56-year-old said the sci-fi film was made in just 15 days in 2020 without the director or any of his co-stars.
“[War of the Worlds] was a movie I did in 2020 during the pandemic,” the rapper said.
“We shot it in 15 days, and it was during the pandemic. So the director wasn’t in there. None of the actors was in there. This was the only way we could really shoot the movie.”
Ice Cube also said that the film was originally shot by Universal but was then bought by Amazon, which caused its release to be delayed.
He also said that a lot of the additional footage was acquired from real surveillance cameras. “So they had to build all that s*** [and then collect and edit the footage],” he added.
Since its release, War of the Worlds has since gained infamy amongst film lovers, with many ironically celebrating the dubious quality of the movie; after its release on the streaming service Prime Video, the film became a surprise ratings hit.
Some fans have, however, expressed sympathy for Ice Cube following his revelations about the production process.
“It's a terrible movie, but I feel Ice Cube gave it his best, and you can't blame him for the poor quality,” wrote one person.
“Perhaps the effort would have been valued more if the movie had been released during the pandemic,” another fan wrote. “Or if it was live-streamed at that time. To release it like a complete movie, five years later, seems like a bad joke.”
“It seems unbelievable that no one in the team questioned the quality of the film while they were making it,” commented a third fan.
“Being filmed in 2020 explains a lot of things but why did they wait five years to release it instead of at a time when it was even the slightest bit culturally relevant?” asked another.
The latest adaptation of HG Wells’s influential 1898 novel was released in July on Amazon’s Prime Video service and features a twist on the classic sci-fi tale.
In the film, Ice Cube portrays Homeland Security surveillance and threat assessment expert Will Radford. The character witnesses the extra-terrestrial invasion play out in front of him on a computer screen while he attempts to help disparate groups of survivors fend off the invading aliens.
Eva Longoria, Clark Gregg, Andrea Savage, Henry Hunter Hall, Iman Benson, Devon Bostick, and Michael O’Neil also star in the film, which was panned by critics, with one likening it “to a feature-length commercial for all things Amazon”.
The film managed to score a rare zero per cent score on Rotten Tomatoes, and has now entered the aggregator’s website for the 100 worst movies of all time.
