BAD BOYS III is a project that’s been in development for some time. Given the success of the first two films, it’s a bit of a shock that it didn’t get made sooner. It’s only been in the past year, however, that this film has received any momentum. Around June of last year, it was confirmed that Joe Carnahan, director of such films as THE A-TEAM and THE GREY, was in talks to helm the picture. Not much has been heard since then about his involvement.

But now, Joe Carnahan has recently tweeted out a pre-vis picture with the title BAD BOYS III up top, pretty much confirming that he’ll be directing the film, and has already begun the process.

The photo had the following caption from the director:

“…who is this man? 

…and how bad is he? 

#BadBoys3 “

While I’d already considered Carnahan’s involvement a foregone conclusion, we can now give this an official stamp of approval. 

But of course, the big question is whether or not Martin Lawrence and Will Smith will be involved in this one. In recent months, there has been a lot of back and forth confirmation from the pair that they’d be interested in returning, but this latest interview between Will Smith and A.Dot is the latest in that ongoing saga.

The relevant bit begins at about 2:45 in, following Smith’s confirmation that we will NOT be seeing a WILD WILD WEST sequel, where Smith said the following:

“I saw Martin [Lawrence] a few weeks ago, and I hadn’t seen him for about two years and we just looked at each other. We hugged, and in that moment we both knew we were making another BAD BOYS, so yeah, we’re definitely doing another one.”

What are your thoughts on Carnahan officially joining the film? Will he be a worthy successor to the Michael Bay franchise? Let us know in the comments down below!

SOURCES: Joe Carnahan, A.Dot