The THR is reporting that Joe Carnahan (The A-Team, The Grey) has now left the Bad Boys 3 project. Some of their sources cite scheduling conflicts and others, creative differences. Carnahan had also written the most recent draft of the script.
Will Smith, who has been on board for the project for some time said he’d spoken to Martin Lawrence about signing on last year.
“I saw Martin a few weeks ago,” Smith told BBC 1 in February 2016 (via The Verge). “I haven’t seen him for about two years. We just looked at each other. We hugged. In that moment, we knew we were making another ‘Bad Boys.’ We’re definitely doing another one.”
The film was set for a November 8, 2018 release with a likely fall 2017 production start date. It had also gotten a new title, Bad Boys for Life. This is a reference to Will Smith and Martin Lawrence’s characters’ famous motto, “We ride together, we die together, bad boys for life.” Carnahan had taken over directing duties from Michael Bay.
