‘Bad Boys 4’ Officially in Pre-Production with Directors Adil El Arbi Bilall Fallah Back

"Bad Boys, Bad Boys, wotcha gonna do?" If you’re Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, apparently you’re gonna make a fourth movie in the successful action comedy franchise.

Yes, with Will Smith seemingly persona grata again despite that little incident at last year’s Oscar ceremony, the actor took enthusiastically to Instagram for a new video which included him driving to Martin Lawrence’s house to announce that a fourth ‘Bad Boys’ is indeed now in the works.

Featuring a funny moment where the pair realize that it might have been a mistake to call the last movie ‘Bad Boys for Life’ (since ‘Bad Boys 4 Life’ would really work for this one), it’s mostly the excited actor teasing fans about what he’s actually announcing.

(L to R) Martin Lawrence as Detective Lieutenant Marcus Miles Burnett and Will Smith as Detective Lieutenant Michael Eugene 'Mike' Lowrey in 'Bad Boys for Life.'

But whatever it ends up being called, the fourth film will see the return of directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, who oversaw that last movie, which ended up being one of the few movies released in 2020 ahead of the incoming pandemic and making more than $426 million worldwide. So of course Sony and producer Jerry Bruckheimer would want to try and get another going.

‘Bad Boys For Life’ saw an older Mike (Smith) and Marcus (Lawrence) tackling their latest case, a mother-son drug trafficking duo who proved to be a dangerous threat.

Nothing is yet known about what the cops will be dealing with this time, but the script will come from ‘For Life’s Chris Bremner. And we’re all but guaranteed cars crashing and things blowing up, plus comedy squabbling between our heroes. Will anyone be slapped? Let’s find out!

It’s certainly better news for the directors, who have had mixed fortunes of late. Following the praise and box office bonanza of ‘For Life’, they were in demand, squeezing in indie movie ‘Rebel’, worked on episodes of ‘Ms. Marvel’ (which boasted a fun visual style) and also cranked out ‘Batgirl’ with high hopes for more cinematic success.

(L to R) Leslie Grace, co-director Adil El Arbi, and Michael Keaton on the set of 'Batgirl.' Photo courtesy of Adil El Arbi's Instagram.

Yet ‘Batgirl’ not only fell victim to Warner Bros. Discovery cost-cutting, consigned to the shelf when still in post-production.

And the knocks have kept coming. The movie, which stars Leslie Grace, Brendan Fraser, J.K. Simmons, and Michael Keaton has now been described as “ not releasable” by producer and DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran. Having spent a couple of months figuring out the future of the DC movie, TV and video game universe with James Gunn––who outlined their plans yesterday––Safran was doing press for the big new announcement when he was asked about the ‘Batgirl’ situation.

“I saw the movie,” he said. “There are a lot of incredibly talented people in front of and behind the camera in that film, but that was not releasable. It happens sometimes. “I think [Warner Discovery CEO David] Zaslav and the team made a bold and courageous decision to cancel it, because it would have hurt DC and those people involved. I spoke to Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah last week. We’d love to be in business with all of them.”

It’s an unusually candid answer for a controversial subject, especially about a movie that plenty of fans still want to see. But perhaps El Arbi and Fallah will get a do-over at DC. Once they finish wrangling Smith and Lawrence, that is.

Directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah from Disney+’s ‘Ms. Marvel.’