For 14 years now fate has been tempting us with the possibility of a third Bad Boys movie. The first two, directed by Michael Bay, are action-movie staples and damn fine films to boot, not to mention box office success, so a third film should have been a no-brainer, but Will Smith’s rising star (not to mention his desperate Oscar drives) kept pushing the date back, and then Bay left the picture, and for years it just floated there in limbo waiting for someone to pluck it from the ether and make it a reality.
A few years ago we seemed to have found that somebody in Joe Carnahan (The Grey), who came aboard to write the script — now called Bad Boys For Life — and direct the project. We even got close enough for the studio, Sony, to announce a release date for the film: January 2018.
But then came the inevitable signs of a slowdown. First the release date was pushed from January to November ’18, and now the biggest setback of all has befallen the project, one that pretty much presses the reset button: Carnahan’s out.
I started to get the feeling this was going to happen a couple weeks ago when the director announced he was taking the helm of the American remake of The Raid with Frank Grillo, and late yesterday my worst fears were realized. Furthermore, according to reports from THR, who had the exclusive, the word is that not only is the studio seeking a new director, but they may be on the hunt for a new writer as well.
No real word on the reason for the split — Carnahan cites the “irreconcilable differences” of filmmaking: creative differences and scheduling conflicts — but it sounds like either Carnahan’s taking his draft with him or Sony’s nixing it. Once upon a time the plan had been to shoot two Bad Boys sequels back-to-back, but my guess is this is the last time you’ll hear anything about that.
There’s also no word on who Sony is eyeing for Carnahan’s replacement, but I’d like to throw Gareth Evans’ name into the ring. After all, if Carnahan split to remake Evan’s film, seems only fair play that Evans gets to tackle the vacant project. Expect news soon, just don’t hold your breath it will be good news; at this point I’d wager there’s a 50% chance of this flick getting made.
In other news and points of interest…
… Did you catch the first trailer for the third season of Fargo, starring Ewan McGregor as twins? If not, check it out right here…
… Start engraving the Oscars now: Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and Meryl Streep are making a movie together about the Washington Post’s publishing of The Pentagon Papers in 1971…
…Damien Chazelle’s La La Land follow-up, The First Man, which has him set to re-team with Ryan Gosling for a Neil Armstrong biopic, finally got a release date…
…If you’re a fan of this television season’s guiltiest pleasure, The CW’s Riverdale, then you’re going to like this news pertaining to the show’s future…
Over in our corner of the internet, we’ve had some great stuff go up in the last 24 hours, including Angela Morrison’s look at cinematic depictions of BDSM, Paola Mardo’s experience at an IMAX VR Centre, Danny Bowes’ study of Austin noir The Underneath, Rob Hunter’s Blu-Ray Pick of the Week, and the ultimate video essay guide to the great Terrence Malick.
And in case you missed them, these are five of the most popular shots we tweeted out over the course of the day. Want to see more? You know where to find us.
BADLANDS (1973) Director of Photography: Tak Fujimoto, Stevan Larner, Brian Probyn | Director: Terrence Malick
RUSHMORE (1998) Director of Photography: Robert D. Yeoman | Director: Wes Anderson | #TexasWeek
ALMOST FAMOUS (2000) Director of Photography: John Toll | Director: Cameron Crowe
SE7EN (1995) Director of Photography: Darius Khondji | Director: David Fincher
PARIS, TEXAS (1984) Director of Photography: Robby Müller | Director: Wim Wenders | #TexasWeek
