It's been a long road for Bad Boys 3. The project, which would see the return of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence to the high-action series, has been stuck in development hell for years now, but it had finally seemed to crawl its way out when Joe Carnahan signed on to write and direct. Then it was promptly kicked back into hell by some cruel spirit when Carnahan left the project. Now Bad Boys 3 seeks a new director, with some pointing to Michael Bay, who directed Bad Boys 1 and 2, to step back in. Bay, however, has no such plans himself.
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.
Michael Bay directed the first two Bad Boys, creating high-octane action films in his signature "Bayhem" style that helped turned Will Smith into a bonafide movie star. So it stands to reason that with the third film in the series in near constant strife, Bay would be a top contender to direct. However, as Bay told Fandango, he's not involved with the project, and fans shouldn't get their hopes up at seeing him return to the director's chair. Bay seems to wish the production the best of luck and urges them to get a move on lest they want to make a movie about "retired cops instead of active-duty cops."
Bad Boys 3, also known as Bad Boys for Life, as been in development for several years now, and received its biggest step forward when Joe Carnahan was recruited to write and direct. Carnahan, having handled such action movies like The A-Team and The Grey, seemed like a solid choice to helm the threequel. Unfortunately, Carnahan announced that he was leaving the project due to scheduling conflicts, and now development has once again stalled.
Though there hasn't been a Bad Boys movie since 2003, it makes sense that the studio would want to get a third movie out there as fast as possible. In our modern world, it's recognizable IP's that sell at the box office, and the Bad Boys series has always done quite well in that department. The first Bad Boys in 1995 grossed more than $140 million worldwide, while it's 2003 sequel nearly doubled that with $270 million worldwide. Having Michael Bay -- who delivers box office devouring popcorn movies on a regular basis -- makes sense, and Bad Boys is steeped in Bay's unique style. Still, Bay is looking to find a different project to do post-Transformers.
Bad Boys for Life is currently slated for release on November 8, 2018, but if they don't find a director soon, that is likely to change pretty quickly.
