Pack your zip lines and grapefruits! The “Girls Trip” sequel is taking us to West Africa. Tracy Oliver, who co-wrote the original 2017 comedy with Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Tiffany Haddish, stopped by the Variety Studio presented by Audible at Sundance to talk about the upcoming reunion of those four actresses.
Oliver, who was at the festival to promote the second season of her Amazon Prime Video series “Harlem,” said she had a “definitive ‘Girls Trip 2’ update. That it’s officially happening. I can say that.” She also provided a plot update, and while the film’s producer, Will Packer, “might kill me, we’re looking to set it in Ghana.”
One of Oliver’s “Harlem” stars, actor Shoniqua Shandai, screamed “Afrochella!” after Oliver dropped the news. She refers to the annual Afrochella festival, Ghana’s premiere cultural and music event, whose name borrows from the American flower crown convention Coachella. Oliver said that the girls from “Girls Trip” will try to go to the festival, which has attracted well-known musicians from the area, like Shatte Wale, who has worked with Beyoncé. A production timeline is unknown as Oliver still needs to submit her script.
The first “Girls Trip” movie did very well at the box office, making $140 million worldwide on a small budget of $16 million. Malcolm D. Lee directed the project, which was produced by Packer and co-written by Oliver and Kenya Barris from a story they conceived with Erica Rivinoja. It also launched the recently embattled Haddish into superstardom.
Oliver has been to a lot of film festivals in the past year. Her acclaimed horror comedy “The Blackening” made its world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. The film, directed by Tim Story, was acquired by Lionsgate shortly after TIFF and will be released in June.