It was the action franchise that first made a name for Michael Bay, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, and now it’s being reported by the trades that two of the three might reunite with Sony Pictures wanting to revive the long-in-development Bad Boys 3 with Joe Carnahan in talks to do rewrites and direct an existing script by David Guggenheim.

Of course, Sony hopes that Smith and Lawrence will return and are trying to fast track the project to be the next movie for Smith to shoot after he’s finished with Warner Bros.’ Suicide Squad.

The original Bad Boys was released in 1995 and it grossed a relatively tame $65 million, but by the time Smith and Bay returned with Bad Boys II in 2003, they both were big enough names for a $46.5 million domestic opening (not bad for an R-rated film at that time) and a worldwide gross of $273 million.

Although Carnahan doesn’t have a deal in place as of yet, his kinetic action films like Smokin’ Aces and The A-Team show that he’s capable of following in Michael Bay’s footsteps to take over the franchise. Carnahan’s most recent release, the Blumhouse-produced action flick Stretch starring Patrick Wilson never received a theatrical release, but that was following the Liam Neeson survival thriller The Grey, which was quite successful.

Presumably Jerry Bruckheimer is still involved as a producer although he’s not specifically mentioned in any of the stories about the revival of this franchise.

Stay tuned for more developments.