Before I go any further, I confess that I'm not a fan of RUSH HOUR movies. Sure, it had its moments of crowd-pleasing fun but really, all the previous three RUSH HOUR movies were strictly formulaic and Chris Tucker was more of a major attraction while Jackie Chan was pretty much of an afterthought. Anyway, producer Arthur Sarkissian has recently revealed that he is interested to do another RUSH HOUR and yup, he's really serious about it. Here's what he had to say below.
I am working on Rush Hour 4 right now with Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan. I’m trying to do it closer to how I did Rush Hour 1, more down to earth, more gritty, introduce two new characters and make it real the way the first one was. I personally was not happy with the third one. I thought 1 and 2 were very good. I think 3 got out of hand a little bit. It’s not a matter of just bringing them back to do another segment of that or a sequel to it by putting them in another city and having them bicker. I don’t want that. I want something new.
He also added about introducing two new characters in RUSH HOUR 4, especially someone younger than Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan.
Maybe younger, maybe Chris is now married, maybe Jackie is married to Octavia Spencer, I don’t know. Married to Chris’s cousin, they live in Shanghai, Chris goes out to visit them. I don’t know, I want something energetic.
Sarkissian also revealed that Tucker and Chan are interested in returning for the fourth time, but as of now, he has not settled with a screenwriter yet.
Right now we haven’t decided yet but I’m very close to making a decision. I have about four or five names that we’re roaming on right now.
On the possible return of director Brett Ratner for RUSH HOUR 4 since he previously directed all three movies, Sarkissian welcomes him anyway, even though he has expressed his dissatisfaction over Ratner's involvement in RUSH HOUR 3.
If he wants to do it he’s more than welcome to do it but he’s got to do it in the right way.
About the fact that Jackie Chan will downplays his death-defying stunts after his involvement in the upcoming CHINESE ZODIAC, Sarkissian insists that he remains relevant in RUSH HOUR 4.
He’s getting a little older. I think he can fit it. What was great about Rush Hour 1 and 2 mostly was the relationship of these two and it came out of nowhere. It was just very real. We didn’t build it, we didn’t write it. It just happened. I think the action will be there but it has to be molded to fit him today and not forced into stuff that he won’t do.
Apart from developing RUSH HOUR 4, Sarkissian is also looking forward to expand the franchise as interesting and fresh as possible.
One of the things that surprised me and actually excited me was how they did Fast Five. They kept the characters, they took them and they put them in a whole different world. They put them in the world of a heist movie and it worked. I think that was brilliant what they did because if you’re not careful, what happens is you just keep repeating yourself. There’s not much you can do. You’ve got to be very careful but that’s where creativity and energy and good thought and a little bit of hard work comes to try and give them something that’s in that world but a little different.
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