Don’t blame Ice Cube for surrendering his famous scowl — it's what’s been working for him as he tries to evolve into a Tinseltown A-list player.

Cube’s production company, Cube Vision, tasted success last year with its first effort, the comedy "Next Friday," and it's hoping to follow-up with "All About the Benjamins," due March 8, and "Friday After Next," slated to be released around next Thanksgiving. Both films star Cube and funnyman partner Mike Epps, "Next Friday’s" main attractions.

"With Epps, the first project we worked on together, he was new to it," Cube said Friday during a satellite press conference he delivered from Los Angeles. "He didn’t know what to expect from the whole experience. He’s done a few movies in between, [so] he’s just more comfortable with acting [now]. The chemistry seems to flow. We’re working on our third movie together, which is ‘Friday After Next,’ [and] we’re in such a flow that it's kind of like some of them old-school teams of comedy pairs you used to see. We plan on doing three more movies together."

"Cube is a expert. He’s a good coach," Epps added. "As a player, you just have to listen to him. After doing this many films with him, I know what he wants. I know what his comedy consists of."

In "Benjamins," Cube plays Bucum, a Miami bounty hunter who dreams of opening his own private dick agency. On his latest case, he’s on the trail of Epps’ character, Reggie, a petty thief on the verge of changing his life.

The two are forced to become partners when they get tangled up with a pair of jewel thieves after Reggie witnesses one of their crimes.

"I went off the script a little bit," Epps said of the filming. "It’s hard staying on the script. Ice Cube allows us to adlib. He’ll let me get mine in, tell me to say an extra muthaf---a. He always gives me extra leeway."

The duo are four weeks into "Friday After Next" and said it’s going to be just as ghetto fabulous as its predecessors.

"[We’re] wrapping this whole 'Friday' concept on Christmas Eve," Cube said.

"Santa Claus broke in my house," Epps explained.

"I don’t think we exposed America to what a black Christmas can really be," Cube said. "We’re just exposing how Christmas can really happen in the 'hood. We’re back in the 'hood, Craig and Day-Day live together. Mr. Jones and Uncle Elroy own the barbecue spot, and we work as ghetto security at the little strip mall."

"He’s taking his authority too far," Epps said of Cube’s character. "He’s walking around the mall wearing house shoes. A security guard with house shoes? One thing about working with Ice Cube, you ain’t never gonna loose your core audience. You can go in the ghetto somewhere and see a ‘Next Friday’ poster in a crack house."

And while Cube, who’s releasing a greatest-hits album on December 4, is grateful for the music fans that have supported his movies, he wants to keep expanding his appeal.

"With movies I’ve been able to grab a whole other audience," explained the legendary rapper, who said he’s trying to become a free agent MC after his next album. "The rap game plays out after a while. I’ve been in it for 15 years. The same doing videos, going up to the radio station, ‘Buy my record.’ Fifteen years of that, you want to show how creative you are on different levels. We don’t want all the pie. We just want a little piece of it."

"With a little crust on it," Epps added, laughing.