Some bittersweet news for Rush Hour fans: Rush Hour 4 is a go at Paramount, but its development comes at the hands of some difficult people.
The Hollywood Reporter writes that disgraced director Brett Ratner, who has been embroiled in several allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct since 2017, will return to the franchise to direct the fourth film. The allegations include names like Olivia Munn and Natasha Henstridge; Henstridge claimed that Ratner forced her to perform oral sex, and Munn claimed that the director masturbated in front of her after she delivered him food to his trailer. Ratner has denied all of the allegations.
Trump’s involvement in getting ‘Rush Hour 4’ off the ground
But that’s not the end of the problematic situations surrounding the creation of the movie. Wildly enough, President Donald Trump hounded Paramount into getting the movie off the ground. According to the article, Ratner is directing an upcoming documentary about First Lady Melania Trump. The documentary is set to be released through Amazon and has the full participation of Donald Trump. An additional project, a three-part docuseries about the First Lady, is also in the works from Ratner.
It can be assumed that the President and Ratner’s new relationship led Trump to press on Larry Ellison, with whom he has an existing relationship. Larry Ellison, in turn, pressed his son David Ellison, who runs Paramount Skydance, to bring Rush Hour 4 and a future Bloodsport revival to fruition.
Even though some might view the Rush Hour franchise as tainted at this point, die-hard fans might be happy that the duo of Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan will be back together on the big screen in the very near future.
What was previously said about a fourth film?
The potential for a fourth film has been in the works for years at this point, as early as 2012. The last anyone heard about the film’s direction was in 2019, when Tucker told The Ringer’s Winging It podcast that the film was close to pre-production. In his words, Tucker said that he, Chan, and the film crew “want to make this one the best one so far.”