Bad Boys for Life bounces back with 2020 release date

Bad Boys for Life is back from the dead.

The planned third installment of the action-packed buddy-cop franchise starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence has been given a new release date of Jan. 17, 2020, Sony Pictures announced Wednesday.

Now slated to arrive nearly 17 years after Bad Boys II hit theaters, the long-gestating threequel has endured several false starts and was pulled from the studio’s release calendar last August. That same month, Lawrence even told EW, “I don’t think we’re going to get one, not the way everything’s turning out.”

But it looks like you can’t keep a good Bad Boy down. Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (Black, Gangsta) are on board to direct the new movie.

Sony’s TriStar division has also dated You Are My Friend — the drama starring Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers, of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood — for Oct. 18, 2019. The fall release dates suggests that the Marielle Heller-directed film could be positioned as an awards hopeful.