BAD BOYS FOR LIFE Director Calls The Sequel a "Home Run"

Last week, we found out that the long-gestating Bad Boys 3 is officially going to be called Bad Boys For Life. Joe Carnahan is directing, and now in a new interview with io9, he reveals that stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are both definitely coming back. He also hinted at the film's plot, and gave a few more interesting tidbits that I'll break down for you below.

• Carnahan said that thanks to the delayed release date, he's had more time to perfect the script, which he says is “the strongest script of any of those movies. Hands down."
• It sounds like he's really putting an emphasis on getting the story right, saying, "I’m a big believer in ‘Do the work at the script level until you’ve got something you know works.’ That everyone is happy with, the stars are happy with, the director is happy with, the studio is happy with."
• As for the plot, the director teases: "There’s a lot of funny shit in this movie. And there’s also a very mysterious, but tonally spot-on story that I think is kind of perfect for where we are in this day and age, where the guys are and reflectively, a very modern take on these guys. It’s kind of what becomes of Bad Boys when they’re not boys anymore."
• This won't be a legacyquel that passes the torch from one generation to another. This is a straight-up sequel: "There’s only one Will Smith and one Martin Lawrence. You can’t replace those guys and I wouldn’t want to be involved if it wasn’t Will and Martin. They are that franchise."

Sounds like he's definitely coming at it from the right place, but it remains to be seen whether general audiences will be intrigued enough to go see a third Bad Boys movie fifteen years after the second film came out. Head over to io9 to read the rest of the interview. Bad Boys For Life hits theaters on January 12, 2018.