The Rush Hour trilogy has been seen as one of the late 90s/early 2000s best buddy cop comedies with martial arts icon Jackie Chan pairing his brand of action and humor with Chris Tucker’s own brand of fast-talking comedy. The 1998 original successfully crossed Chan over into American productions, while catapulting Chris Tucker to superstardom and made Brett Ratner Hollywood’s new hotshot director. Last year, Tucker has talked about the potential of Rush Hour 4 finally manifesting when he said, “You’re going to see a lot of good stuff coming, but it’s going to be on a whole other level. That’s what I like… I’m excited about that. It’s not going to be what you’ve normally seen… Rush Hour 4, that’s something I definitely will probably drop in there because I love working with Jackie, but I’ve got some new stuff that I think you’re really gonna like. I’m excited about it.”
The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that years ago, Warner Bros., who had distributed the trilogy from their New Line Cinema label, had allowed a new sequel to be licensed elsewhere. Earlier this year, Lionsgate, which hit big in the past with their own action franchise John Wick, held a meeting to see what potential projects they were interested in greenlighting. Rush Hour 4 was one of the titles that was looked at. There is one stipulation that is making the executives hesitate — Brett Ratner is part of the pitch as the film’s producer and director. Working with Ratner is something the studio is taking the time to consider since the director has laid low for the past seven years, ever since he had been accused of multiple allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment in 2017.
Ratner has denied the allegations and no charges were ever brought against him. However, his agency had dropped him and he hasn’t directed since. According to THR, in an email with Ratner where the matter was inquired, the director said that the claims were filled with “gross inaccuracies” and refused to comment more on the matter. A couple of years ago, Chan would reveal at the Red Sea Film Festival that talks were taking place for a new sequel, “We’re talking about part 4 right now.” He even went on to add that he would be meeting with the director that night. However, Chan did not reveal if he was specifically talking about Ratner.
After the short update, Chan would go on to reminisce about how he had to be talked into doing the first film since his few attempts to break into Hollywood would not go optimally for him. “I tried so many times to go to Hollywood, but after that, I said no more Hollywood because my English is not good, they’re not my culture, they don’t like this kind of action. My manager said look, there’s a script, and it’s called Rush Hour. I said no, Hong Kong police? I’m not going to do it. He said Jackie, why don’t you try last time. I said okay, this is the last time.”