adil el arbi

In a span of 23 years, Sony Pictures’s Bad Boys franchise has long been both a success and a “what if” for fans who’ve waited for a third installment since Michael Bay unloaded an explosive sequel to the 1995 original. For this, all eyes are now on Bad Boys For Life with word from Deadline that Belgian directing duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah are negotiating with Sony to direct the film beginning in August.
El Arbi and Fallah paved a career path for themselves in TV and film, scoring a hit in 2015 with their second feature, Black, and are now in tow with their latest, Gangsta. The former can be quoted in Variety as of Jamuary 3 even expressing interest in the film saying “We’d love to do ‘Bad Boys 3,’ that’s right up our alley.” among other titles of interest. Both are also attached to a fourth installmemt of the Beverly Hills Cop franchise as of 2016.
The two Morrocan-born filmmakers are now in talks for the film which will finally see the reunion of actors Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in the role of odd couple Miami P.D. detectives Mike Lowry and Marcus Burnett. Development had changed hands since 2008 with script and story duties consectively going to Peter Craig, David Guggenheim and Joe Carnahan synonymously with the various stops and starts that occurred. Carnahan left the film last year having prioritized his upcoming WarParty production slate with partner, actor Frank Grillo.
The film was pulled altogether last August, a few months before NBC scored a pilot commitment for a TV spin-off of the franchise that now has Gabrielle Union attached and Ernie Hudson also on board to play her father Joseph; Union saw her role in Bad Boys 2 co-starring as Sydney Burnett, sister to Lawrence’s role. There’s no word yet if both will appear next to their on-screen sibling in the film.
Jerry Bruckheimer is back as producer from a new script is by Chris Bremner.

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