Will Smith and Martin Lawrence provided a positive update on the fourth installment of the buddy cop action comedy film series Bad Boys.
Speaking at this year’s CinemaCon in Las Vegas, Smith expressed excitement about the film while apologizing for not being able to attend the event. In an act reminiscent of their onscreen characters, Lawrence admonished his partner and took the opposite stance. He stated that they aren’t really sorry for being absent as they’ve been in Atlanta for the past four weeks filming Bad Boys 4.
Smith agreed and retracted his apology, jokingly saying, “We glad we not there because we here and they’re paying us to be here.”
The Bad Boys franchise follows two funny, fast-talking Miami police detectives and their crusades against criminal elements. Although they’re largely successful, the detectives wrack up extensive civic and vehicular damages, which constantly pits them against their boss.
The first film in the franchise, Bad Boys, debuted in 1995. While it garnered mixed reviews, the film was a massive success at the box office grossing over $140 million against a $19 million budget. A sequel arrived in 2003 to even worse critical views. However, it also performed well at the box office.
The latest installment, Bad Boys for Life, arrived 17 years after Bad Boys II. Unlike its predecessors, the film performed well with critics. Like them, it performed well at the box office with its $426 million gross making it the highest-grossing film in the franchise so far.
In Bad Boys 4, Smith and Lawrence will reprise their roles as Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett respectively. Paola Nunez, Alexander Ludwig, and Vanessa Hudgens will also return as the characters they played in Bad Boys for Life while Eric Dane, who currently stars as the character Cal Jacobs in the HBO teen drama television series Euphoria, will join in an undisclosed role.
Bad Boys 4 will also bring back Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, who jointly directed the third installment, as directors and Chris Bremner as the screenwriter. Smith, Lawrence, and Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced all prior installments, will serve as executive producers.
One of Hollywood’s most bankable actors, Smith’s career took a nosedive last year after he slapped host Chris Rock at the 94th Oscar Awards for making a joke about the alopecia that his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith, is battling. Following the incident, many studios either canceled or suspended their projects with him.
However, the actor’s stock seems to be back on the rise. Last month, a source told Variety that Netflix had resumed production on Fast and Loose. The streaming giant had paused the project, starring Smith as an amnesiac crime boss with a double identity, following his assault on Rock. Although unconfirmed, Disney is also bringing the actor back as the genie in a sequel to its 2019 film Aladdin.
Smith’s latest project is the historical action thriller film Emancipation, which is available on Apple TV+.
