Jamie Foxx's 2016 project about two basketball fanatics has been sitting on a shelf for years ... and the actor thinks cancel culture is why it hasn't seen the light of day.
Jamie stars alongside Jeremy Piven in "All-Star Weekend" -- a flick about two superfans who snag tickets to the NBA event out in Los Angeles ... it was supposed to debut in 2019, but it still hasn't come out, and no official word on the holdup.
Jamie thinks he knows why the movie's been delayed, telling CinemaBlend that the material may simply not be woke enough for the current climate ... "It’s been tough with the lay of the land when it comes to comedy." The buzz ... it has to do with casting a white star to play a Mexican man.
He thinks the film could be a great way to ease the tension, noting "We're trying to break open the sensitive corners where people go back to laughing again."
The cast includes Benicio del Toro, Gerard Butler, and Eva Longoria ... as well as Robert Downey Jr. playing a Mexican man.
Jamie, who plays a white racist cop in the film among other roles, thought RDJ was the man for the role after he played a white man in blackface in "Tropic Thunder," but the actor apparently needed some convincing before signing on.
Jamie says he had to tell Robert, "You played the black dude and you killed that s***. We got to be able to do characters."
While Jamie thinks it's got to do with the culture, Jeremy Piven believed it had more to do with his co-star ... saying "You'll never see it. Jamie doesn't want to release it," during a May interview on "Get Some with Gary Owen."