[IMG:L]Brett Ratner’s once again stuck in Rush Hour traffic—this time in the City of Light.
The last of this summer’s “threquels,” Rush Hour 3 finds Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan’s heading to Paris to take on the Traids. As with all of Ratner’s previous Rush Hours, this third pairing of the motormouthed Tucker and the high-kicking Chan relies as much on laughs generated by cultural misunderstandings as it does on its chop-socky action.
Unlike Tucker, who hasn’t been seen in theaters since 2001’s Rush Hour 2, Ratner’s worked almost nonstop in the past six years. He participated in two high-profile franchises (the Hannibal Lecter prequel Red Dragon, X-Men: The Last Stand) to much derision but to great commercial success; tried but failed to launch Pierce Brosnan’s post-Bond career in grand style with After the Sunset; and began dabbling in TV, producing Fox’s Prison Break. But it was only a matter of time before he turned his attention back to the buddy-cop series that made his name.
Hollywood.com spoke with Ratner about the injuries Chan’s sustained on Rush Hour 3, Tucker’s return to acting, his upcoming Hugh Hefner biography Playboy, and the detractors who believed he would ruin the X-Men franchise.
Hollywood: Was it inevitable that Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan would both be fish out of water in Rush Hour 3?
Brett Ratner: That was the formula. In the first movie, Jackie was in L.A. He was the fish out of water. In the second movie, Chris went to Hong Kong. This movie, we had to pick a place—it wouldn’t make sense for them to go to England. You could do it, but we have to create situations where the comedy can unfold. All the comedy is definitely situational and character driven.
HW: Was it also inevitable that the climax would take place on the Eiffel Tower?
BR: We didn’t know if we could get permission. And then when we did, it was like, yes! It was amazing to be up there and to be filming. We could only film from midnight to 6 a.m., so the parameters were very tight. So we went back to L.A. to build part of the Tower on a stage.
HW: Jackie was 44 when he made Rush Hour in 1998. Now he’s …
BR: … 90.
[IMG:R]HW: Taking into account his age [53] and the wear and tear on his body, what concessions were made in regards to the stunts he did or did not do?
BR: He’s the same…. He got hurt this time, which was different. He never got hurt really [on previous Rush Hours]. He kicked a table up, and it hit him in the chest and cracked his sternum. And he got a lot of little injuries. Otherwise, I didn’t notice any slow downs. I didn’t notice that anything had changed. He was still the great Jackie Chan.
HW: Chris Tucker is Hollywood’s very own Hailey’s Comet. He only comes around every Rush Hour. He’s done a lot of humanitarian work recently, but why has he only acted in three films—all Rush Hours—in nine years?
BR: He’s a comedian. His instinct is to live life. Because of Rush Hour, he’s able to spend six years experiencing life. I don’t know what’s in his head. I’m flattered he’s worked just with me for the past 10 years…. He’s a comedic genius, really. He’s the equivalent to young kids what Eddie Murphy was to me when I was a young kid.
HW: Chris Tucker reportedly signed a two-picture deal with New Line. Is the second film going to be Rush Hour 4? Or another film of his choosing?
BR: I don’t know the details. Hopefully it’s a movie with me. I’ll be sad if he decides to make a movie every five years and it’s not with me, because I would then have to wait 10 years.
[IMG:L]HW: Will Tucker join Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock in the Trump Towers-targeted heist thriller you’re going to direct.
BR: I want him in it. I just haven’t given him the script. It’s not done yet. When it’s done, he’s the first guy I’m going to go to. Chris Rock and Eddie Murphy are already attached. I love Chris Tucker. I love Dave Chappelle. I love Jamie Foxx. If I could get those guys …
HW: And Denzel Washington’s going to be the villain?
BR: Denzel’s interested because he’s got a relationship with [producer] Brian Glazer. They just did the Ridley Scott movie [American Gangster]. That’s all I know. I haven’t spoken to him specifically about it.
HW: Will you make it before your Hugh Hefner biography, Playboy?
BR: Probably, but it really depends on [which script] comes in first. I’m really excited about the Hefner movie, but it’s more difficult to do a biopic than it is a heist film.
HW: The People vs. Larry Flynt flopped. Why do you think audiences would be willing to see Playboy?
BR: Young people don’t really know what Hefner’s done for society and for our culture as one of the creators of the Sexual Revolution, the things he fought for: freedom of speech; putting Lenny Bruce on television before anyone would put him on television; James Brown performing on Playboy After Dark when no one was having black entertainers perform on television; and showing black and white people dance together. And his fight for First Amendment Rights goes way beyond Larry Flynt’s. Hustler buried Playboy when pornography came out. It took all the innocence out of what Hefner was trying to do. But this guy truly is an icon…. And I’m hoping young people will see Playboy and go, wow, that’s why things are the way that are today.
HW: What are you looking for in the actor whom you eventually cast as Hef?
BR: I’m looking for an actor similar to what Jamie Foxx was in Ray. I’m looking for someone who can mimic. Not that Hefner’s speech patterns and mannerisms are so popular—the name is more popular, as well as the image of the Bunny, of course.
HW: And they’ll have to look good in a robe.
BR: That’s important.
HW: What’s the lowdown on the upcoming season of Prison Break?
BR: I just came from Dallas. I was on the set of Prison Break. I think this is by far the best season yet. It’s a hybrid of the first season, as Michael Scofield’s back in jail. The second season was so great because it became like The Great Escape. This is a hybrid of both those seasons. It’s combination of a prison movie and an escape movie.
HW: How cool was it play yourself while plugging Rush Hour 3 on Entourage?
BR: That was fun. It’s close to reality, except instead of having 20 girls around the pool, I usually have 30 or 40 girls. So I kind of played it down a little. No, I’m kidding. Working with Johnny Drama—come on, it’s the most fun you could ever had.
HW: Going back to Rush Hour 3, what’s harder? Being a part of franchise from beginning to end? Or, in the cases of Red Dragon and X-Men: The Last Stand, building upon the work of other directors?
BR: The hardest thing is Rush Hour 3. Harder even, in retrospect now that I’ve completed both films, than X-Men 3. Rush Hour 3 is harder because I’ve done the other two. The pressure is on the three of us. I want to make them happy. They want to make me happy. We’re constantly challenging ourselves. And it all feels so familiar. Every scene is déjà vu. So how do I top this? How do I do make this better? How do I take this to another level?
[IMG:R]HW: After the beating you received from X-Men fans when you took inherited the franchise from Bryan Singer, did you feel like you got the last laugh when The Last Stand proved to be the most successful in the series?
BR: Bryan Singer gave me the best advice. He said, “Whatever you do, do not read [what’s on] the Internet. They hate you and they hated me when I did the first movie, and they’re going to hate you and just don’t pay attention to them.” I’m happy I didn’t, because when it was over, I turned on the computer and I looked at it and thought these people were insane. They wanted [Anna Paquin’s] Rogue has to be star…. I don’t think I could have done the first movie as well as Bryan did. He created the universe. But it’s ridiculous people say I ruined the franchise. It was the biggest one of them all…. I know that people who know the X-Men universe know what a good movie it is.
[IMG:L]HW: You tried to make Superman with an unknown. How did you feel when Warner Bros. allowed Bryan Singer to cast an unknown as the Man of Steel?
BR: I understood why. My version—really, I have to say, J.J. Abrams’ version—came in at $280 million. So how were [Warner Bros.] going to cast an unknown with that investment? They probably would have spent the money had I gotten a star. In my opinion, you couldn’t make Superman with Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise is Tom Cruise. He’s not Superman. If Bryan had ended up doing my version of the movie, and had gotten an unknown, I would have been pissed off. But everybody knew if Brett Ratner could not put this movie together, nobody is going to be able to do it. Bryan had a whole new concept, which cost $180 million, which was more reasonable. And they took the risk with an unknown. [Singer] made the right choice. You need an unknown for Superman.
HW: Did you and Singer have a friendly bet over whose comic-book movie would perform better at the box office?
BR: We don’t compete like that. We did consciously swap, though. No, I’m kidding. It was ironic. When I left Superman, I was bummed out. I thought, Bryan has X-Men. [Sam] Raimi’s got Spider-Man. [Christopher] Nolan’s doing Batman. There are no more franchises…. And when Bryan left, I said, I’ve got to get X-Men. I love comic books. X-Men was not one of the comic books I read growing up, but I loved the cartoon and I wanted to do a comic-book movie. I was saddened that Bryan wasn’t going to do the third [X-Men]—I can’t imagine not doing the third Rush Hour. I couldn’t let it go.
HW: Then that does mean you will one day do Rush Hour 4?
BR: I think it’s contingent on the success of [Rush Hour 3]. If the movie’s a big hit, the studios going to back to Chris, Jackie and I and give us a gazillion dollars to go make the next one. But it depends on the performance. It’s hard now. There are so many movies out. When we did Rush Hour 2 in 2001, there wasn’t a lot of movies. There wasn’t five or six 3’s out. Now there are so many blockbusters that it’s hard to survive.
HW: Surely it helps being the summer’s last “threquel”?
BR: We’ve saved the best for last.
