Back in March, writer/director Joe Carnahan departed from Sony Pictures’ Bad Boys for Life after the project being in development for some time. Now star Martin Lawrence has spoken to Entertainment Weekly with a pretty grim prognostication about the fate of Bad Boys III.
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“I don’t think we’re going to get one, not the way everything’s turning out,” Lawrence said. “Will is off doing another movie, and I don’t think it’s going to happen. I’m there, I’m ready right now. If they wanted to do it, I’m ready, but I don’t have control of that. That’s the studio’s decision.”
Will Smith, who has been on board for the project for some time said he’d spoken to Martin Lawrence about signing on last year.
“I saw Martin a few weeks ago,” Smith told BBC 1 in February 2016. “I haven’t seen him for about two years. We just looked at each other. We hugged. In that moment, we knew we were making another ‘Bad Boys.’ We’re definitely doing another one.”
The film was set for a November 8, 2018 release with a likely fall 2017 production start date, but was moved entirely off Sony’s schedule earlier in August. It was going by the title Bad Boys for Life, which is a reference to Will Smith and Martin Lawrence’s characters’ famous motto, “We ride together, we die together, bad boys for life.” The original Bad Boys was released in 1995 and it grossed a relatively tame $65 million, but by the time Smith and Bay returned with Bad Boys II in 2003, they both were big enough names for a $46.5 million domestic opening and a worldwide gross of $273 million.
Carnahan spoke about the cast last August, saying, “There’s only one Will Smith and one Martin Lawrence. You can’t replace those guys and I wouldn’t want to be involved if it wasn’t Will and Martin. They are that franchise.” He described the film, saying, “There’s a lot of funny sh*t in this movie, and there’s also a very mysterious, but tonally spot-on story that I think is kind of perfect for where we are in this day and age, where the guys are and reflectively, a very modern take on these guys. It’s kind of what becomes of Bad Boys when they’re not boys anymore.”
What do you think of the status of Bad Boys III? Do you still want to see it? Let us know in the comments or tweet us @ComingSoonnet.
