Sony Pictures ReleasingGrab your Tropical Fruit Bubblicious and Skittles: the Bad Boys For Life trailer is here.
Martin Lawrence and Will Smith’s explosive KKK-shooting and drug-stomping antics were last seen 17 years ago in Bad Boys II.
After a long periods of uncertainty, Michael Bay’s adored series is set to make a barnstorming return next year as the boys return to take down a drug cartel in Atlanta.
Check out the trailer below:
The threequel is being directed by Belgian directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, with the star duo reprising their roles as detectives Mike Lowrey (Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence).
Also returning is Joe Pantaliano as Captain Howard, as well as franchise newbies Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig and Charles Melton, Jacob Scipio, Paola Nuñez and DJ Khaled (yes, really).
The first film, Bad Boys, saw the two pals protect a witness to a murder while investigating theft of heroin from an evidence locker in Miami. The sequel saw the pally police officers attempt to curb the flow of MDMA into Miami.
A third Bad Boys film languished in production hell for quite some time. Bay said back in 2008 that he’d consider directing it, but cost was going to be an issue: Smith and Lawrence demanded very high salaries for their work.
Columbia PicturesBack in 2015, director Joe Carnahan was confirmed to helm the third entry, with two further sequels confirmed for release in 2017 and 2019 respectively – obviously, that never came to fruition.
Due to creative differences with Will Smith, Carnahan exited the project.
As reported by CinemaBlend, Carnahan said:
I just know myself, man. And I thought what we were doing at that point was the law of diminishing returns. I wasn’t servicing the story that I was really excited about telling, that the studio had green-lit.
And again, this isn’t to throw shade at Will – it’s your face on the poster, it’s your name on the poster, you need to do things the way you want them done.
Sony Pictures ReleasingAfter Carnahan left, the film was left in a state of limbo once more. Bay was approached to rescue the project, but showed little interest.
As reported by CinemaBlend, Bay said:
Pretty soon they’re going to be old boys, okay. Pretty soon they’re going to be retired cops instead of active-duty cops. It’s taken a long time to get that thing going, and I’m not involved in getting it going.
They should get it going soon, though. You could definitely get Martin and Will to be funny again – those were fun movies to do.
After a decade of back-and-forth, the film is now less than half a year away. ‘This shit just got real.’
Bad Boys For Life will hit cinemas on January 17.
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.