According to Exhibitor Relations, Sony Pictures‘ long-in-development Bad Boys 3 has been given a new name: Bad Boys for Life. This is a reference to Will Smith and Martin Lawrence’s characters’ famous motto, “We ride together, we die together, bad boys for life.” Also, after being originally dated for February 17, 2017, then delayed to June 2, 2017, the threequel has shifted dates yet again to the relatively quiet January 12, 2018 where it will be opening against Fox’s Maze Runner: The Death Cure and Paramount’s Sherlock Gnomes.
The A-Team and The Grey director Joe Carnahan (taking the reigns from Michael Bay) will helm the film, and has in recent months posted several pre-viz shots from Bad Boys for Life which you can check out in the gallery below!
Although Smith and Lawrence are expected to return, Sony had originally hoped to fast track the project to be the next movie for Smith after he’d finished with Warner Bros.’ Suicide Squad, but the actor moved on to the drama Collateral Beauty.
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 (not bad for an R-rated film at that time) and a worldwide gross of $273 million.
Jerry Bruckheimer is expected to return as a producer, with a screenplay by David Guggenheim (Safe House). Sony also has Bad Boys 4 scheduled for July 3, 2019, although as with other ambitious sequels planned as two films like Mad Max: Fury Road and Independence Day: Resurgence, the two Bad Boys sequels may be folded into one before all is said and done.
