Good news, folks. It looks like a Half Baked sequel is totally happening and, like, totally being made by some comedian named Justin Hires. Because, you know, the universe is super ironic, bro.
Oh, sorry, let me crack a window and…there, better. As the smoke clears, we can now get a better look as to what exactly’s going on. It appears that Mr. Hires, best known for his role as Carter on the short-lived Rush Hour TV show has been tapped to pen the follow-up to the Dave Chappelle vehicle from 1998.
Hires is very excited about it, too, and rather confident sounding on his Instagram profile, where he said the following:
“Excited to announce I’ll be writing the sequel to Half Baked. Yes I know the original is a classic and yes this sequel will be [fire] because I’m writing it. Oh yeah, I write screenplays too.”
So, that’s…cool, right? I actually really enjoyed the original film. One of Chappelle’s few leading roles, it showcased his talent and abilities that would lead almost directly into Chappelle’s Show later on Comedy Central. It’s also one of the handful of 90s comedies directed by a woman, Tamra Davis. It’s such a late 90s time capsule that you’ll be taken back to the days of AOL and walkmans as soon as you pop in the DVD. It’s also fun seeing Jon Stewart act like a moron for two minutes.
However, despite having the perfect last name to write a movie about silly, affable losers getting high, I’m not sold on Hires’ ability to pen screenplays just yet. I tried to find his stand-up, as he’s technically listed as a comedian, but his material is hard to track down, at least through a cursory Google search. He does tour constantly though, so good for him. While he also says he writes scripts, nothing of his has ever been produced, and he only has one writing credit to his name from 2007.
Regardless of who pens the film though, it’ll be tough to capture the quaint, somewhat dated charms that the original Half Baked contained. While there’s some iffy material in the movie now, especially pertaining to Harland Williams’ prison exploits, I still think of it as a cult classic. Well, at least one demographic perceives it as such. Good thing I’ve never touched the devil’s lettuce though! I’m a good boy.