The Independence Day star has been voicing his hopes of reuniting with co-star Martin Lawrence in recent years, but insisted they would only reprise their roles as Miami, Florida police detectives if they had a good script.

In 2012, Smith said, "I talked to Martin about that a couple of weeks ago. Martin is into it. (We've) got a couple of screenplays; the story's gotta (sic) be right."

The Grey director Joe Carnahan recently signed on to rework the proposed Bad Boys 3 screenplay, which had originally been written by David Guggenheim, and now it appears studio executives at Sony Pictures are ready to move into the next stage of development after scheduling the film for a 2017 release.

New Sony chief Tom Rothman has also revealed producers are preparing for a Bad Boys 4 for 2019, but it is not clear if Smith will be returning as his character Detective Mike Lowrey for the upcoming films or taking on a behind-the-scenes role, if anything at all, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The original 1995 action comedy and its sequel, 2003's Bad Boys II, were both directed by Michael Bay.