At 31 years old, Malcolm Mays is one of the brightest young minds in film, television and entertainment. He has already contributed to Snowfall, Them and Power Book III: Raising Kanan. Not to mention, he’s spent time working with some of the best minds in film like John Singleton. In the near future, he’s embarking on one of his most ambitious ventures yet — a New Jack City sequel. During a recent interview with The Breakfast Club, he spoke about the film in-depth without giving too much away.
“What’s the premise of the film?” DJ Envy asks.
“The way I set it….it’s the appropriate amount of time after [the original]. It’s [set in present day]. You see what’s kind of happened to everybody through the lens of a new set of characters. It starts with…I don’t even know if I can do this, man. I don’t even know. I’ll put it like this. I’ll put it like this. The tagline I used is this. He says, ‘Nino is trying to new jack a city. I’m trying to trap the world.’ It takes place internationally. [There are scenes in] Russian, France, etc. I put people of color in it. I put people of color in it. It’s drug dealing more than drug dealing.”
As Mays continues to describe the highly anticipated sequel, DJ Envy begins to wonder how the previous film may play into the original.
“Do you play to those other characters that were there before?” DJ Envy asks.
“Mhmm. Everybody’s back,” he answered.
Adding to his answer, Mays also lets everyone know who he hopes will play the lead role.
“The lead is a light-skinned woman. I wrote [the movie] with Zendaya in mind. Ice-T’s daughter is the lead. She’s a federal agent,” Mays said in response to one of Envy’s questions.
“So, that’s Zendaya?” Angela Yee asks.
“It’s Zendaya. I want it [to be her]. If you hear this Z, you’re a talented young lady and we want you be that,” he adds.
At this time, it’s unclear when the movie will be released, but it looks like it’s taking shape in real-time. To hear the back and forth about the New Jack City sequel, the discussion begins at 32:13.
