The first two Bad Boys films haven’t exactly aged well and morphed into cultural milestones, but there’s still plenty of interest from Sony in bringing back stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence for a third instalment. It has proven to be quite difficult though, as the film has laboured in development hell for a while.
Last year, the wheels were seemingly in motion to get the film going, with Joe Carnahan (The Grey) on board to direct, before eventually dropping out. Now, directing duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Falah have been brought on board to helm the sequel. Jerry Bruckheimer will return to produce, and reportedly the production is eyeing an August start date.
While El Arbi and Falah might not be household names, it’s worth noting that they’re also attached to direct another Bruckheimer sequel in the form of Beverly Hills Cop 4, although there’s been little movement on that since they signed on back in June 2016. They have however directed episodes of the FX drama Snowfall and turned some heads with their 2015 drama, Black.
If production can get going, it will be interesting to see what the duo attempt to do with the film, as they’re following in the steps of Michael Bay, one of the most notoriously excessive filmmakers. Bad Boys II was downright insane, and that’s sort of putting it mildly, so whether El Arbi and Falah attempt to top that or go for a more grounded approach will be worth monitoring.
Whether the sequel, now set to be titled Bad Boys For Life, is something audiences want to see is up for debate, but Smith is still a big star and box office draw so if the film eventually gets made there’s likely to be some interest.
Whether they can hit the proposed August start date will determine whether we see the sequel in 2019, or 2020, or possibly beyond. And who knows what Hollywood will look like by then?
#Peace.Love.BadBoys
