Deadline reports that David Guggenheim (Safe House) has been hired to work on Bad Boys III for Sony Pictures. Sony is hoping to bring back Will Smith and Martin Lawrence for the sequel. At this time, Michael Bay doesn't appear to be involved but Jerry Bruckheimer is producing. Bad Boys II was released ten years ago but made $273 million on a $160 million budget.
Sony is trying to have the original cast for the sequel, which makes it different than reboots for Ghostbusters and Men in Black. In the case of Ghostbusters, it has to do with Bill Murray not wanting to get involved. With Men in Black, the franchise was becoming so expensive with the talent and back ends that it was getting hard for the studio to make money.
Guggenheim is a hot talent in Hollywood and is currently working on a Safe House sequel, Narco Sub (Scott Free produced, Doug Liman directed), Puzzle Palace (directed by McG) and Weaponized, an adaptation of his own novel with Nicholas Mennuti. He also worked for Sony to write a new draft of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune.
