Issa Rae Is Developing a ‘Set It Off’ Remake

Issa Rae is in the early development stages on her remake of the 1996 cult classic Set It Off, Variety reports. Issa will produce and possibly star in the film.  

Set It Off told the story of four friends who turned to robbing a string of banks amid frustration over their low-income jobs, but aside from being well recieved during the time of its theatrical release, the project helped solidify the film directorial career of F. Gary Gray, who was already coming off the success of 1995’s Friday. 

Most importantly, Set It Off starred four women—Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox and Kimberly Elise—at the forefront as they exhibited the same character complexities that seemed to only be reserved for the roles of their male counterparts. 

As co-creator and executive producer of Insecure, Rae is quite familiar with the concept of a small group of friends navigating their way through the hardships that life has to offer. Of course, there are some drastic differences between the hit HBO series and Set It Off. 

With a Set It Off remake and a Michael Showalter-directed rom-com with Kumail Nanjiani, Issa has positioned herself as a big screen presence, and HBO’s programming chief Casey Bloys tried to pave the way for her to get her coins elsewhere when the network pushed the fourth season of Insecure to 2020. 

“Issa became a big movie star,” Bloys explained. “We’re not the first place to deal with this, but when you’re in business with very creative and talented people, there’s a lot more opportunities for people to do things.”