Early into the development into Bad Boys 3, what we now know as Bad Boys For Life, Michael Bay, the director of the first two Bad Boys movies, expressed interest in helming the movie, but ultimately it was Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah who fulfilled those duties. However, the directing duo would still end up meeting Bay when he came onto the Bad Boys For Life set, and he didn’t mince words with Arbi and Fallah when offering advice on the movie. As they recalled:
Adil El Arbi: The day we did that shot, that was the first time we actually met him, and he only gave us one piece of advice… and that advice he said was:Bilall Fallah: ‘Don’t fuck up my baby.’
No need to elaborate from there. Michael Bay may not have been overseeing things on Bad Boys For Life like he’d done twice before with the Will Smith and Martin Lawrence-led film series, but it’s understandable why this movie would be important to him. 1995’s Bad Boys was Bay’s first feature-length film, so obviously these characters and the overall mythology will always have a special place in his heart.
Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah mentioned Michael Bay’s blunt advice during their recent appearance on the ReelBlend podcast when talking about how during Bay’s visit to the Bad Boys For Life set, he ended up directing a scene. Arbi and Fallah had invited Bay to cameo in the movie, but then they realized that the scene he’d appear in could easily be shot by him too. Bay appeared in Bad Boys For Life as a wedding DJ, and the camera went 360 degrees around him.
You can listen to ReelBlend’s full interview with Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah’s time on Bad Boys For Life below.
So Michael Bay was ultimately still able to contribute to Bad Boys For Life in a small way both on and off-camera, but during his brief time working on the movie, he made sure to voice his thoughts to Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. Judging by how the movie’s been performing, it looks like they did not “fuck up” his baby.
Since its release last weekend, not only has Bad Boys For Life earned a lot of positive critical reception (earning a 77% critics score and 97% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, and an A on CinemaScore), but it’s so far collected over $122 million worldwide. With January often being a month filled with bad movies, Bad Boys For Life has managed to shine brightly, so much so that there are already plans to bring back Mike Lowery and Marcus Burnett.
It was reported last Friday that Bad Boys 4 is in the works, with Chris Bremner, who’s also working on National Treasure 3, penning the script. Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah learned this news at the same time as the public, so they don’t yet if they’ll be brought back for Bad Boys 4. The duo is already attached to direct Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop 4, but maybe their schedules will align so that they can work on both projects.
As for Michael Bay, his latest movie, 6 Underground, hit Netflix last month. While the Ryan Reynolds-led action flick has been collecting a lot of views, its critical reception hasn’t been anywhere near as good as Bad Boys For Life’s. Bay is still attached to direct the Robopocalypse adaptation, though whether or not that will be his next project remains to be seen.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more coverage on Bad Boys For Life and any major updates on Bad Boys 4. Feel free to also look through our 2020 release schedule to figure out what you’ll be seeing in theaters this year.
