For pretty much a decade, Sony has been trying to get Will Smith and Martin Lawrence to return and make "Bad Boys 3." In 2009, the studio hired Peter Craig ("The Town") to write a script, and when that one didn’t take, David Guggenheim ("Safe House," "Stolen") was tapped to give it a whirl. And it seems more work needs to be done, and another high profile name is being brought into the fold.
Joe Carnahan ("The Grey," "The A-Team," "Smokin’ Aces") has been hired to rewrite the script with an eye to possibly direct the movie as well. So, time to start popping the champagne? Not quite. The most important cog in this machine, the picky Will Smith, hasn’t agreed to anything just yet and Deadline notes that Sony is racing to get a new script done so the actor can "consider" the movie for his next project once he’s finished with "Suicide Squad." But Smith doesn’t jump back into old franchises so easily. While he re-upped for Sony’s "Men In Black 3," 20th Century Fox couldn’t lock him down for "Independence Day 2" and eventually just went ahead and made it without him.
READ MORE: Will Smith Finally Decides Not To Star In ‘Independence Day 2’
So, we’ll see if Carnahan has the magic to bring Will Smith back. But if not, maybe Sony can start thinking about a female-led spinoff like they’ve already done with franchises "Ghostbusters" and "21 Jump Street"?