Despite other Will Smith projects being frozen, Martin Lawrence confirms that Bad Boys 4 is still happening at Sony.
Since the ‘slapping’ incident at this year’s Oscar ceremony, several Will Smith projects have been unceremoniously terminated, such as the Netflix sequel to Bright which was reportedly in development.
However, one project that has reportedly clung to life is Sony’s Bad Boys 4. That’s according to none other than Sony Pictures chairman Tom Rothman who said a couple of months ago that “it was a very unfortunate thing that happened, and I don’t think it’s really my place to comment, except to say that I’ve known Will Smith for many years, and I know him to be a good person. That was an example of a very good person having a very bad moment, in front of the world. I believe his apology and regret is genuine, and I believe in forgiveness and redemption.”
Whilst that wasn’t a direct ‘proof of life’ to indicate that Bad Boys 4 was alive and well at Sony, it was a fairly clear indication that under Rothman’s watch at least, Bad Boys 4 was still on Sony’s development slate, even if he also countered that by adding “that movie’s been in development and still is. There weren’t any brakes to pump because the car wasn’t moving.”
This sits in direct opposition to studios like Netflix and Apple, who reportedly canned potential Smith projects following the Oscars punch.
Now though, the series’ co-star Martin Lawrence has confirmed Rothman’s indirect statement, stating that a fourth film will happen, telling Ebony in a short and unfussy statement: “We got one more at least.”
It’s been proved before that almost anybody can eventually be released from what filmmaker Kevin Smith often refers to as ‘Hollywood Jail’ and the door it seems, is very much open for Smith to return when Sony deems the time is right. Lawrence’s phrasing of ‘at least’ suggests that as far as he is concerned, the fourth film may not even be the duo’s last and that the Bad Boys series is going nowhere. We’ll bring you more developments with this one as we hear them.
—
Thank you for visiting! If you’d like to support our attempts to make a non-clickbaity movie website:
Follow Film Stories on Twitter here, and on Facebook here.
Buy our Film Stories and Film Stories Junior print magazines here.
Become a Patron here.
