Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah

Years active2010–present

Adil El Arbi (born June 30, 1988) and Bilall Fallah (born January 4, 1986) are Belgian film and television directors. The duo, collectively billed as Adil & Bilall, are known for writing and directing the feature films Image (2014), Black (2015), and Gangsta (2018), as well as directing both Bad Boys for Life (2020) and Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024), the third and fourth installments of the Bad Boys franchise starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.

Career

Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah met during their film studies at the Hogeschool voor Wetenschap en Kunsten in Schaerbeek, Brussels, Belgium. During their studies, the first project that they directed was a short film named Broeders (2011), which was appreciated by critics; their later films, Black (2015) and Patser (2018), also received positive reception.^[1]

They directed the first two episodes in the TV series Snowfall, which aired on July 5 and 12 in 2017,^{[citation needed]} as well as Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike's music video "When I Grow Up", which features American rapper Wiz Khalifa.^[2]

The duo were attached to direct the fourth installment of the Beverly Hills Cop film series, in which Eddie Murphy was to reprise his role.^[3][4] Later, in April 2022, it was announced that the duo would no longer direct the fourth Beverly Hills Cop film as previously intended.^[5]

In 2022, the duo directed and executive produced episodes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe series Ms. Marvel for Disney+.^[6]

Bad Boys franchise

The duo are perhaps best known internationally for directing both Bad Boys for Life (2020) and Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024), the third and fourth installments of the Bad Boys franchise starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.^[7][8][9]

Bad Boys for Life was theatrically released in the United States on January 17, 2020, by Sony Pictures Releasing.^[10] It became a worldwide box office hit, grossing $424.6 million internationally.^[11] It became both the highest-grossing film in the Bad Boys franchise and the highest-grossing film released in January.^[12]

Bad Boys: Ride or Die premiered at Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai on May 22, 2024, and went on to become a box office success worldwide as well,^[13] grossing more than $200 million as of June 2024,^[14] becoming the tenth-highest-grossing film of 2024.^[15]

Unreleased projects

In February 2017, Bilall Fallah and Adil El Arbi were attached to direct the pilot episode of the WGN America series Scalped,^[16] which filmed in New Mexico in early April,^[17] but in November, after WGN saw it, they decided to pass on the series.^[18]

In May 2021, it was announced that the duo would direct a film featuring Batgirl for HBO Max.^[19] In August 2022, after Warner Bros. Discovery made the decision to write the film off for tax purposes, it was announced that the completed Batgirl film would not be released.^[20] With a reported $90 million budget, Batgirl is one of the highest budget movies in history to be produced, but not released.^[20]

Filmography

Short film

Year	Title	Directors	Writers	Editors
2011	Broeders	Yes	Adil El Arbi	No
2016	Patient Zero	No	No	Bilall Fallah
2017	Hashtag	Yes	Yes	Yes

Feature film

Year	Title	Directors	Writers	Editors
2014	Image	Yes	Yes	Yes
2015	Black	Yes	Yes	Yes
2018	Gangsta	Yes	Yes	Yes
2020	Bad Boys for Life	Yes	No	No
2022	Rebel	Yes	Yes	No
2022	Batgirl (unreleased)	Yes	No	No
2024	Bad Boys: Ride or Die	Yes	No	No

Television

Year	Title	Directors	Writers	Executive Producers	Notes
2012	Bergica	Yes	Yes	No
2017	Snowfall	Yes	No	No	2 episodes
2021	Soil	Yes	No	No	2 episodes
2022	Ms. Marvel	Yes	No	Yes	2 episodes

Unreleased

• Scalped (2017)
• Batgirl (2022)

References

External links

• Adil El Arbi at IMDb
• Bilall Fallah at IMDb