Alexander Ludwig, Vanessa Hudgens, and Charles Melton are on board to join Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in Sony’s “Bad Boys 4 Life,” sources tell Variety.
Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah are on hand to direct the sequel from a script by Peter Craig (“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay,” “Transformers”) with Joe Carnahan also doing a rewrite. Chris Bremmer is the current writer.
Jerry Bruckheimer returns as producer. Doug Belgrad will also produce, as will Smith. Barry Waldman, Mike Stenson, Chad Oman, and James Lassiter are executive producers.
Hudgens, Ludwig, and Melton play a modern, highly specialized police unit that collides with the old school Bad Boys (Smith and Lawrence) when a new threat emerges in Miami. The pic will go before cameras next month and is slated for theatrical release Jan. 17, 2020.
Joe Pantoliano is on board to return as Captain Howard.
Sources tell Variety that Smith and Lawrence had been doing chemistry tests with talent for four new roles with Ludwig, Hudgens, and Melton coming out on top. A villain role is still being sorted out.
After breaking out as the villain Cato in “The Hunger Games,” Ludwig has been a rising star with roles in “Lone Survivor” and “Grown Ups 2.” Following the show’s impressive first season, Ludwig would go on to join the cast of History Channel’s “Vikings” and is currently one of the leads of the series, which is currently in its sixth season.
Hudgens has been busy as of late, most recently starring in the Netflix film “The Princess Switch,” and can be seen next in the comedy “Second Act” opposite Jennifer Lopez. In 2019, she can be seen in the Netflix thriller “Polar” and also has the next Fox live event, “Rent: Live,” which premieres on Jan. 27.
Melton can currently be seen as Reggie on CW’s “Riverdale” and previously appeared in “American Horror Story” and “Glee.” He can be seen next in Warner Bros. and MGM’s “The Sun Is Also A Star” opposite Yara Shahidi.
Ludwig is repped by UTA and Untitled Entertainment. Hudgens and Melton are repped by CAA and Untitled Entertainment.
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The Sun Valley Film Festival will kick off its eighth edition March 13-17 in the Idaho ski resort town. More than 60 films will be screened at the festival, which also includes Coffee Talks (Gwyneth Paltrow was a guest speaker last year), a screenwriters lab and awards bash. Variety is a media partner of the […]
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Winston Duke has had quite a year. Not only did the Yale School of Drama alum make his feature film debut, but it happened to be in “Black Panther” playing M’Baku. “It’s been a blessing,” Duke says. “A lot of things come with this. It’s a lot of attention. It’s a lot of all these […]
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Alexander Ludwig, Vanessa Hudgens, and Charles Melton are on board to join Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in Sony’s “Bad Boys 4 Life,” sources tell Variety. Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah are on hand to direct the sequel from a script by Peter Craig (“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay,” “Transformers”) with Joe Carnahan also doing […]
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Netflix has set Alfonso Cuarón’s awards contender “Roma” for a 70 millimeter release in seven North American cities over the next month. The 70mm presentation has already been showing in Toronto at the Bell TIFF Lightbox. It will also screen in Austin, Chicago, Hartford, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. “’Roma’ is designed to […]
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PLAYBACK is a Variety / iHeartRadio podcast bringing you conversations with the talents behind many of today’s hottest films. New episodes air every Thursday. The Oscar season has been in full swing for months, but we’re getting closer and closer to crunch time. Ballots will be sent to Academy members in just two weeks. Meanwhile, […]
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Guillermo Del Toro has come on board to produce “Terrified,” an English-language remake of last year’s Argentinian horror thriller, for Fox Searchlight, with Sacha Gervasi set to write the script. Demián Rugna, who directed the original from his own script, will helm the remake. Del Toro won Academy Awards in March for producing and directing […]
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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has named sports executive Christine Simmons its new chief operating officer — a post that has been unfilled for the past five years. Simmons, president and COO of the Los Angeles Sparks, will assume her new role in January and report directly to AMPAS CEO Dawn Hudson. […]
