Sony is reportedly in negotiations to bring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence back together for Bad Boys For Life, the third film in the Bad Boys series. Directorial team Adil El Arbi and Bilal Fallah are in talks to helm the project.
Arbi and Fallah have worked together on three movies. They’re best known for Broeders (2011), Black (2015) and Gangsta (2018). The team are a up-and-coming commodity in Hollywood right now. This would be their first major work in the U.S.
Videos by PopCulture.com
According to a report by Deadline, Sony is aiming to begin production on Bad Boys For Life in August. The threequel would come 15 years after its predecessor, Bad Boys II, which was released in 2003. The original Bad Boys came out in 1995, meaning that detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett will have aged 23 years in their onscreen lives.
Jerry Bruckheimer is reportedly already back on board to produce the picture. The script has reportedly been passed around quite a bit, but the current version was written by Chris Bremner, a producer on The Wedding Ringer (2015).
Insiders say this project has been a top priority as Sony for a long time, as Bad Boys is one of their most valuable intellectual properties. The movie has a referential staying power than not many action movies can achieve these days, and it’s beloved for launching both Smith and Lawrence to the upper echelons of stardom.
When Bad Boys came out, Smith was well-established as both a family-friendly hip-hop artists and a sitcom star, but this was one of the world’s first looks as his ability for big screen action. The movie incorporated a lot of comedy, which helped ease audiences into the idea of seeing the Fresh Prince as a detective, but Hollywood soon realized he was capable of a lot more.
Lawrence, for his part, was dragged onto the A-list when he appeared as Smith‘s partner. He had been in several movies at that point, and his show, Martin, was at its height, but his banter with Smith between action sequences made him a household name.
Sony appears to have big plans for Bad Boys For Life, as there is already a blank IMDb page for Bad Boys 4. Both Smith and Lawrence are listed there, so it may be that the actors are contractually bound to the franchise.
