Joe Carnahan Exits ‘Bad Boys 3’ — Whatcha Gonna Do, Columbia?

Bad Boys sequels, Bad Boys sequels — whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do when your director abruptly leaves you?

If you haven‘t already closed this page in a fit of blind rage, thanks, I really needed to get that out. But yeah, the long-gestating third installment of Michael Bay’s Bad Boys crime franchise lost its director last night when onboard helmer (and writer of the latest draft of the screenplay) Joe Carnahan unceremoniously parted ways with the production. The Hollywood Reporter states that the director of such genre films as Smokin’ Aces, The Grey, and the A-Team remake chucked up the deuce on account of scheduling complications, though conflicting reports suggest that the age-old euphemism of ‘creative differences’ was to blame. Here’s what Carnahan himself said on Twitter:

This leaves the presiding studio of Columbia in quite a jam, as the film, tentatively titled Bad Boys For Life, now lacks a hand on the wheel just as they were prepped to get going. This project has spent years floating in a pre-production purgatory, and it was only given the green light relatively recently. Now, they’ll need to land some new talent and fast before this project gets shelved once again.

My modest proposal? Go with the genuine article, and shell out whatever ten-figure check original franchise director Michael Bay’s asking for these days. The director’s gotten mired in the wilds of the Transformers series for the past decade-or-so, but his recent Pain and Gain was a nice reminder of what fun the guy can be when he’s working in his wheelhouse. A third Bad Boys could be a nice return to basics: buddy-buddy quips, affectionate establishing shots of Miami, bulging oiled-up biceps. Will Smith is back in, why not Bay?