Martin Lawrence blames Will Smith for delays to Bad Boys for Life

Martin Lawrence has blamed the delays to making Bad Boys for Life on Will Smith's desire to perfect the script.

The third instalment of the action-comedy franchise, starring Lawrence and Smith as Miami detectives Marcus Burnett and Mike Lowery, was released in January, with the flick coming two decades after Bad Boys II was unveiled in 2003.

Discussing the lengthy hiatus during a recent Q&A with #CRWN on Tidal, Lawrence playfully pointed the finger at Smith.

"(Bad Boys for Life) took so long because of this guy. He wouldn't do the script unless it was right," he insisted.

Smith, who co-produced the movie, then noted that the reason why the project took so long to develop was because he takes the representation of African-Americans in cinema very seriously.

"These first two (Bad Boys) movies - at the time we did the first one '95 - it was two black guys in a movie. That was a big deal back then. And it was like just what Bad Boys meant to the community and then we came back with Bad Boys 2 and it worked," the 51-year-old commented.

Readily accepting responsibility for Bad Boys for Life's slow progress, Smith told the audience that he felt especially protective over the third Bad Boys film.

"(The story had to be) right, that it had something to say, that it was funny, and that it deserved to be made again... The Bad Boys had to come correct," he stated. "I just didn't want to wreck the franchise, you know. I had felt like I had other sequels in my career that I didn't feel like, I didn't land it."