Will Smith and Martin Lawrence confirm 'Bad Boys 3' is officially happening

Will Smith and Martin Lawrence have jointly confirmed that the long-awaited Bad Boys 3 is a go, the pair delivering celebratory posts to their respective Instagram pages.

“It’s official!” Smith shouts again and again, with Lawrence popping up in the background.

Lawrence also dropped a slightly more sedate post, captioned: “It’s official. Bad Boys for Life.”

So it’s official, then. Bad Boys For Life is actually happening.

To say the planned third movie in the Bad Boys series has been long in gestation is something of an understatement, not least because the Michael Bay-directed Bad Boys 2 was released in 2003.

The on-again, off-again movie had been previously pulled from Sony Pictures’ release schedule, but then tentatively dated for January, 2020.

The Grey director Joe Carnahan, who was in line to make the movie, exited too, leaving things in limbo.

As recently as last year, Lawrence had said that he was doubtful that it would come together, telling Entertainment Weekly: “I don’t think we’re going to get one, not the way everything’s turning out.

“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.”

The recent negotiations haven’t been easy either.

Smith posted a video to social media over the summer of him banging his head against various things, seeming to denote the complexities of getting the movie over its final hurdles.

But it seems the obstacles have been surmounted, and Smith and Lawrence will reprise their roles as Miami narcotics detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett.

Bad Boys for life, indeed.

Read more
Ridley Scott working on Gladiator sequel
Claire Foy had sex scenes cut from Girl In The Spider’s Web
Tom Hanks on why he struggled to record Toy Story 4