Will Smith and Martin Lawrence kicked off CinemaCon by promoting their return to the “Bad Boys” franchise.
“We’re hype, we’re excited,” Smith told the audience of movie theater owners.
He apologized for being unable to attend the exhibition industry’s annual convention in Las Vegas… sort of.
“We’re not sorry we couldn’t be there,” Lawrence admonished him, noting that they were four weeks into the fourth installment of the franchise.
“We glad we not there because we here and they’re paying us to be here,” Smith said.
Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, who directed “Bad Boys for Life” in 2020, will reunite Smith and Lawrence in “Bad Boys 4.” The cast will also include franchise veterans Paola Nnez, Vanessa Hudgens, and Alexander Ludwig, as well as “Euphoria” star Eric Dane. The screenplay was written by Chris Bremner.
For Smith, it’s a chance to put the ugliness of the Oscars slap incident behind him by reprising one of his favorite roles. He was most recently seen in “Emancipation,” a drama about a runaway slave that was overshadowed by his assault on Chris Rock.
The “Bad Boys” series follows Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett, two Miami cops who have a knack for quips and cause a lot of civic and vehicular damage while chasing drug dealers and lowlifes.
The film industry is finally returning to pre-pandemic levels, thanks to hits like “Avatar: The Way of Water” and “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” Mitch Neuhauser, the managing director of CinemaCon, took the stage to Elton John’s “I’m Still Standing.”
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Source: Variety.com
