We have been hearing rumors about a possible Bad Boy III for years now, but now it seems as though the project is closer to coming together than ever. According to Deadline, David Guggenheim – who is best known for scripting the Ryan Reynolds-Denzel Washington thriller Safe House - is now in early negotiations with Sony Pictures to write the second sequel in the Bad Boys series.
While the studio may have found someone to pen the script, however, there are some other important elements that remain up in the air. Neither Will Smith nor Martin Lawrence – who played trigger happy cops Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett in the first two movies – are currently attached to the project, though the studio is hoping that they can get them to return. Jerry Bruckheimer is set to return to produce the picture, but perhaps the most surprising element of this development is that director Michael Bay doesn't seem to be involved at all at this point.
Bad Boys III may not be a bad idea if not just so that both Smith and Lawrence can work on building their star statuses again. The former is coming off one of the biggest disappointments of his career, with M. Night Shyamalan’s After Earth managing to make only $60 million domestically on a $130 million budget, while the latter hasn’t been considered a big star in years (his last film was 2011’s Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son). Returning to big time characters like Mike and Marcus could give both of them the shot in the arm they need to return to the A-list – provided that a sequel actually turns out to be good.
In addition to Safe House, Guggenheim’s only other produced credit is the Simon West-directed action film Stolen, which starred Nicolas Cage as a former thief who has to run around New York looking for his kidnapped daughter, who is trapped somewhere in the trunk of a taxi (the movie only made $304,318, so don’t be surprised if you never heard of it). The screenwriter is currently developing a Safe House 2, a submarine thriller called Narco Sub that Doug Liman is attached to direct, a McG-directed thriller called Puzzle Palace, and a project called Weaponized that is set to be helmed by Nicholas Mennut. Guggenheim recently worked with Sony rewriting the script for the upcoming video game adaptation Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, which David O. Russell was at one point attached to.
Considering Bad Boys II came out in 2003, by the time a second sequel comes out it will be more than a decade later, so that begs the question: do we really need a Bad Boys III? Answer our poll be low and tell us what you think in the comments section below.
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