The third 'Bad Boys' movie has been pulled from Sony's schedule.

Will Smith

Will Smith

'Bad Boys for Life', the follow up to the 1995 movie 'Bad Boys' and its 2003 sequel 'Bad Boys II', was initially set for release on November 9, 2018, but Sony has now removed it from its upcoming schedule, leaving its future in doubt.

Earlier this year director Joe Carnahan pulled out of the movie, due to "creative differences", plunging the latest instalment of the Will Smith and Martin Lawrence movies into crisis.

The original films starred Will as Mike Lowery, and Martin as Marcus Burnett, who are two pals and detectives in the narcotics division of the Miami Police Department.

The first film charts the duo's battle to recover $100 million of seized Mafia heroin stolen from a police vault before their department gets shut down.

'Bad Boys II' saw the duo investigating the flow of highly-potent ecstasy into the Miami, and although it wasn't received well by the critics, the film went on to make $270 million worldwide.

Smith, 48, and Lawrence, 51, will reprise their roles as drug cops Lowery and Burnett should the movie still go ahead.

The delay in getting the film to the big screen has been blamed on a number of issues, including Smith's hectic schedule.

Jerry Bruckheimer, the producer of the original two films, revealed in April last year, that the script was still being written.