Mara Brock Akil says she is trying to make a Girlfriends film, but the price tag is $50 million. The creator says the full cast is open to coming back, yet the project will not move unless the money is there.
Question Everything podcast
On the Question Everything podcast, Akil said, “I think I have a story that I would love to do in a film, and I have been trying to get it made. I just... you know, right now where the industry is, they don’t see and there has been some interest.” She added, “And I want to do it right, and I know I have the story to make it right. I’m really at that point where I need the money that I need and if it’s notgoing to be there, I can’t keep knocking on every door. I have to sort of move on.”
She put the number plainly: “I’m looking for $50 million dollars to tell the story that I’d like to tell, set in Los Angeles, for the for the entire cast to come back. They want to come back, they’re open to it, but we all want the right value.” That is the business hurdle in one line. The cast support is there; the financing threshold is the gate.
Girlfriends and the cast
Girlfriends ran for eight seasons from 2000 to 2007, with Tracee Ellis Ross, Jill Marie Jones, Persia White, Golden Brooks and Reggie Hayes. A film built around that lineup would not be a nostalgia exercise with a partial reunion; Akil is asking for the whole group.
That matters because she is not pitching a scaled-back version. She said she could make new things if the Girlfriends movie does not happen, but she does not want to make this one unless she can do it right. In practical terms, that means the project is tied to whether a backer is willing to write a check that covers the version she has in mind, not a cheaper substitute.
Mara Brock Akil: Forever Our Girlfriend
At the Mara Brock Akil: Forever Our Girlfriend event, she revisited the casting history behind the series. “Golden came in for Toni [Childs],” she said, and added, “It was interesting because I knew talent was in the room. I knew. So I thought it was Toni.” She also said, “Regina King was the prototype for Joan when I first wrote Joan,” and, “Even Lil’ Kim had auditioned for the show.”
She also said she and Salim Akil saw Tracee Ellis Ross eating at Itacho, and Salim suggested she read for the part. That memory ties the current film pitch back to the original series’ casting process, where the ensemble took shape through a mix of instinct and chance.
The next move belongs to whoever is willing to meet the $50 million ask. Until that happens, the project sits at the same point Akil described: she has the story, she has cast interest, and she has reached the limit of knocking on doors.
