Los Angeles, Jan 18 (IANS): Sony Pictures has started working on the fourth part of "Bad Boys" with stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence expected to return for the next part of the film franchise.

The third part of the franchise "Bad Boys for Life" will release in India on January 31. The buddy cop movie series began in 1995.

Chris Bremner, who worked on "Bad Boys for Life", is on board to pen the script, reports hollywoodreporter.com.

The plan is not to have the same time lag between "Bad Boys II" and "Bad Boys for Life". The time lag was due to several factors, such as budget and finding the right story. The movie's final writing credits include Joe Carnahan and Peter Craig receiving "story by" credit and sharing "screenplay by" credit with Bremner.

"Bad Boys for Life" revolves around a modern, highly specialised police unit that collides with the old school Bad Boys (Smith and Lawrence) when a new threat emerges in Miami. Sony Pictures Entertainment India will release the film in India.