It’s been a little while since we’ve heard anything about Bad Boys 3, the long-developing new installment in the Michael Bay franchise that would — hopefully — reunite Will Smith and Martin Lawrence for another action-packed and hilarious outing. It looks like Sony really wants to get Bad Boys 3 up and running again, and they’ve attracted a director who might be able to pull it off.

Deadline reports that Joe Carnahan, director of The Grey and The A-Team, is interested in directing Bad Boys 3 for Sony. Safe House writer David Guggenheim wrote the screenplay for the proposed sequel, though Carnahan would take a pass at the script himself before directing.

Sony reportedly wants to get a plan together for Bad Boys 3 quickly — Will Smith is currently filming Suicide Squad, and should the studio put together a great sequel concept, they can convince Smith to make this his next project.

Michael Bay directed both Bad Boys movies, the first of which hit theaters in 1995, introducing two slick detectives who team up to protect a witness while conducting a dangerous drug trafficking investigation. The sequel, released in 2003, reunited Smith and Lawrence for another high stakes drug investigation. There’s been talk of a third installment in the franchise for several years, but Smith and Bay have both kept very busy, and Sony needs to find the right script/director to get Smith and Lawrence back on board.

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