Critically decimated upon its release in 2004, Shawn and Marlon Wayans’ “White Chicks” was littered with some of the most politically incorrect jokes imaginable. And yet, it was… watchable. In much the same way Tommy Wiseau’s “The Room” and Ed Wood’s “Plan 9 from Outer Space” are terribly executed pearls of cinematic history.
Over the years, Marlon has repeatedly expressed his desire to make “White Chicks 2,” but the potential sequel kept hitting snag after snag during development. More recently, he stated that if “Scary Movie 6” performs well, then “White Chicks 2” will be the next film he shoots.
Well, “Scary Movie 6” is probably going to do well. No doubt about it. It might even open to $60M this weekend, exceeding expectations—and Wayans is now circling back to “White Chicks,” hinting that the sequel could be set in Trump-land (via Variety):
I just had that conversation with my big brother, and I shot him down. ‘White Chicks’ can go anywhere, but Mar-a-Lago and Florida would definitely be a fun place to make that happen and see our girls in that world. ‘White Chicks’ are like Medea—you can send them to space, and they’ll be funny. I wanna do ‘A Very White Chicks Christmas.’ I have a different idea, but we’re discussing it. We’ll find the right place to put them.
Quite honestly, not the worst idea in the world. Trump could even allow filming to occur on location—maybe, much like he did on “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” which had a few scenes shot at Trump Tower, he’d demand a cameo.
“White Chicks” starred Shawn and Marlon as two FBI agents who go undercover by putting on “whiteface” and posing as the stereotypically WASP-y Tiffany and Brittany Wilson. The women didn’t look white at all; instead, they resembled female versions of Michael Jackson. Viewers simply had to suspend their disbelief and accept that everyone around Tiffany and Brittany, oblivious to the bad makeup, believed they were interacting with actual white women.
Terry Crews played the man who falls for one of the “chicks.” At one point, he swoons, warning her that “once you go black, you end up in a wheelchair.” He was the Osgood to the Wayans brothers’ Daphne.
It’s all played like “Some Like It Hot,” but without the sharp wit. Of course, it’s almost impossible to imagine such a movie being greenlit today. With blackface controversies still in the news —just ask Ted Danson— a “whiteface” movie is probably the last thing most producers would want to finance. And maybe that’s the biggest miracle of “White Chicks”: that it exists at all, and that someone believed it was a good idea to bankroll such a film—let alone a sequel.
Then again, a few years ago, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” co-director Daniel Scheinert told “The Hollywood Reporter” that his dream project would be to remake “White Chicks” as an R-rated Oscar-bait comedy. Someone should remind Scheinert to make that movie.
