For over a decade, Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker have kept the door open for Rush Hour 4 — and even without a set production date, the fourth film is starting to feel like a sure thing, but not without some speed bumps.
Rush Hour 4 is still in motion, with President Donald Trump reportedly giving things a push by encouraging the Ellisons to move forward, something that ultimately helped secure the green light from Warner Bros, who hold the rights.
On top of it, Brett Ratner – the director of the previous Rush Hour films, as well as the recent pro-Trump Melania documentary – is back in the director’s seat with Paramount distributing on behalf of Warner Bros for a double digit percent distribution fee.
Puck’s Matt Belloni repored that the planned summer shoot in China, Africa, and Saudi Arabia has been delayed to September at the earliest. According to World of Reel, the delays likely come down to the planned $120 million budget and the fact that producers Arthur Sarkissian and Tarak Ben Ammar still haven’t locked in Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan, who both turned down $8 million offers despite earning about $20 million each for Rush Hour 3 in 2007. It seems unlikely they’d still be asking for that same payday today, but if they are, it could be what’s holding things up, and would likely push the budget closer to $140 million.
The continuation of the Rush Hour franchise came to a halt in 2017 when multiple women accused Ratner of sexual harassment, prompting studios to cut ties with him. As a result, he’s been effectively sidelined from any involvement in Rush Hour 4. However, all of this happened before the Ellisons and Skydance took control of the studio that now owns the franchise rights, which paved way for wiggle room to bring Ratner back in.
The highly successful franchise – all directed by Ratner (Red Dragon) – consisted of 1998’s Rush Hour, 2001’s Rush Hour 2 and 2006’s Rush Hour 3. In 2016 came the Ratner-produced Rush Hour TV series, starring Jon Foo (Tekken) and Justin Hires (21 Jump Street), which was cancelled after one season.
Back in March 2019, reports surfaced that STX Studios was developing a female led Rush Hour spinoff, with Bingbing Li (The Meg) attached as one of the stars, but the project has since stalled in development hell.
Hot Take: Whether you’re a fan of Trump/Ratner or not, one thing seems clear: if Rush Hour 4 actually moves forward – especially with some of the more controversial figures involved – we can likely expect a throwback-style sequel that leans into the franchise’s classic culture-clash humor, rather than modern social messaging. Count us in!
We’ll keep you posted on Rush Hour 4 news as we hear more.
Oh gawd I can see it now…..
Bingbing Li and………………………………….Leslie Jones……………… O_O
I would pay money to see Li Bing Bing and Zazie Beetz. Not even joking.
That would be a great pairing!
I could see the producers going with Carter played by Jones or Tiffany Haddish for better or worse. One has to wonder if there’d be a rehash of the old jokes or obnoxious “millennial” humor.
Sometimes I feel like the producers are trying to revive this franchise like a kid taping a dead animal back together. Rush Hour 3 took too long to come out and was mediocre, and the TV series was canceled before it was aired.
Like I said in the Facebook post, More Ocean’s 8 and less Ghostbusters 2016.
As long as its not Rush Hour 2. The escort selection scene/ ETD homage was pure cringe. I much preferred the schoolboy humor of RH3
Snowflake relax!) LOL
yellow fever incel, you never gonna get an asian woman keep dreaming
Man, I forgot that I commented on this a long time ago. My opinion still stands.
No thanks. Jackie is too old! Sorry, it’s true, hell, he was past his physical prime when the first Rush Hour was made! I enjoyed the first two, the third wasn’t completely unwatchable, but it’s been too many years, unless Lee & Carter will be fighting crime in a retirement home! Yeah, they could start fresh with a new, younger cast but how did that work out with that short-lived TV series? No thanks …
Wheelchair racings and walking sticks fights. I’m in!
Don’t spoil Indy 5.
Judging by the trailer, too much CGI has already beat him to that. I miss the good old days when Indiana Jones (& Jackie Chan) didn’t need CGI to get through an action scene!
I’d be surprised if quality control was factored in. If Jackie is willing to do stupid-ass junk about cartoon pandas, he’ll do Rush Hour 4 as long as it happens before he dies and he gets a dump truck of money.
I hope Karate Kid Legends, Whispers of Gratitude, and The Shadow’s Edge are good, and that the Rush Hour franchise just ends.
Aren’t they already old for that shit? Not compared to Mel and Lethal Weapon 5, but still…
There are those out there who’d say Jackie Chan was already too old when he made the first ‘Rush Hour’. 🙂
lol
I hope they get Ratner back for the sake of the series’ history (don’t think he was ever convicted of the accusations, was he?). If not, we’re going to end up with a Chad Stahelski film. Or maybe even a souless Netflix-style sequel (i.e. Beverly Hills Cop). Nothing wrong with either of these, but we should strive on being consistent in areas we can control.
If Rartner gets locked in, Eastern Heroes will for surely deliver on the “merch”).
Hell no, Ratner is a creep. Jackie shouldn’t be bear a dude who gets off raping Women. I would take Dragons Forever 2 over Rush Hour 4.
I don’t like Ratner, and all the things Olivia Munn and others have said about him seem likely, but he still has the right to a trial like Bey Logan does. ( I say this as someone who believes the allegations)
I’m sure a Dragons Forever sequel is about as likely as a new Drunken Master film staring Jackie.
With all this talk, I would be surprised if Rush Hour 4 goes past that.
No! Just .. no!!! Jackie was too old for another Rush Hour movie when I commented on this topic a few years ago and, guess what? He hasn’t gotten any younger since! Warner Bros, please, just say no!
This just keeps getting more and more ridiculous. Even is the current US president thinks he’s involved, he’ll quickly get tired of this pet project. Ellison seems more interested in spearheading movies that rationalize the regime’s mentality and actions.
It’s quite a thing when many people petition for a proper sequel to Dredd, and nothing happens, but this move that no one is asking for is like Victor Frankenstein zapping a rotting corpse with a cattle prod over and over.
Ratner is allegedly a fan of Hack Snyder. I just wonder if this means the new Rush Hour will be another Operation Condor for Jackie. https://cosmicbook.news/trump-ratner-snyderverse-connection
This is why USA is the greatest country in the world. The greatest President ever personally intervenes to get back the bestest director ever to return to the greatest Jackie Chan franchise ever. The only things missing now is a cameo from Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey. But since a chinaman and a black man as leads in 2025 is the woke, part 4 revolves around 2 white LAPD officers assisting ICE while talking about evil seed oils and evil abortions. The movie writes itself basically
You know how silly you sounded, right? Most real presidents are not wasting their time trying to help their donors push dead film franchises, because they have way more important things to do.
He knows that. It’s called satire.
Amd Trump and his friends are real and stillalive, sadly.
Message to Jacke Chan: Telk them to f… off or, or…
Whatever…
Tell, not Telk!!!!
P.S.: Jon Voight would be awesome as a…whatever…
The Rush Hour series is hilarious. Even the third film is funnier than most comedies put out these days. Anyone who thinks the humor is dated needs to take a chill pill. Comedy is supposed to be offensive. Just ask Chris Rock. I hope they are able to secure Jackie & Chris for the fourth film. I don’t see many movies in the theater these days, but this one I will go see.
Comedy is also supposed to be funny, not just offensive. There’s a difference between actually being funny, and just being flat-out offensive. It seems too many of these so-called “millenial comics” don’t know the difference at all.
In a perfect world where everyone shared the same mindset and upbringing, “knowing the difference” would be easy. But in reality, what one person sees as harmless, another might find offensive – and vice versa. At the end of the day, it all comes down to perspective.
The best way to move through life, whether in comedy or everyday situations, is to not let other people’s words or opinions get to you. Don’t hand over that kind of power. It’s a losing battle, because life is full of it.
Things get a lot easier once you stop letting other people’s thoughts and words affect you. And that’s coming from a funny-looking Filipino guy who’s been called just about every name in the book – racial, prejudicial, physical – you name it.
There’s no such thing as one-size-fits-all when it comes to movies, music, beauty, food, or especially comedy. =)
Jackie and Tucker need to stay away from VIP #1 (Brett Ratfuck) at Epsteins Pedo Island
You do have to love how in every interview, even for the SHADOWS EDGE , Jackie dumps on how bad the Rush Hour franchise is, but will happily just take the paycheck
It’s a trilogy that got worse as the “Directors” mindset lowered and Chris Tucker just got heavier,
The TV adaptation was abysmal too
Wouldn’t we all rather see a return to Shanghai Noon for a 3rd chapter of that? Perhaps in between PANDA and Intelligent Cat movies, we could get one or two more good movies
Hopefully Armour of God 4, and the could it work Supercop sequel might deliver
Can’t Jackie hand the franchise to his proteges Max Huang, Andy Long, Alan Ng etc?
I think it must stick in Jackie’s craw that for all the phenomenal works of action comedy art that he’s created, his biggest worldwide hit (at least in Hollywood) is a franchise that he considers a piece of disposable garbage with some of his worst action scenes and a character that’s essentially a stereotype.
He had no control – the behind the scenes footage on the RH1 DVD was illuminating – Ratner clearly had no idea what he was doing, and Jackie’s frustration was clear. Hollywood has always seen him as a chopsocky fighter, but Jackie is an acclaimed and experienced director, editor, and choreographer – in short – not a fighter, but a filmmaker. Having to take direction from a tyro like Ratner cannot have been pleasant, not to mention the constant interference and notes from the studio.
Jackie’s 72yo – with the recent The Shadow’s Edge, he’s as viable a box office proposition as he ever was, and the paydays in China aren’t shabby. At his age, he is likely in his IDGAF stage, and he doesn’t need the Hollywood market like he once did. He’s also proudly pro-China now, which means the stream of casual putdowns in the franchise that we found thigh-slappingly uproarious in the 90s (“You’re Third World ugly…Snoopy’s three feet taller than you!”) probably wouldn’t play too well today. Reminder that Chinese actors have gotten in a lot of trouble back home for a lot less – look at MC Jin and the Monster Hunter controversy (a scene featured Jin’s character saying, “What kind of knees are these? Chi-nese,” a pun that critics linked to an archaic schoolyard rhyme mocking Asian people. The backlash resulted in the film being pulled from Chinese cinemas just days after its December 2020 premiere). That line was incredibly subtle compared to literally anything in RH. Jackie’s not going to risk the entire Chinese market. But racial humor is key to the Rush Hour dynamic – by the end, Carter and Lee are jokingly poking fun at each other in RH3, and respecting each other’s cultures.
Really, I can’t see how Rush Hour 4 would do anything to burnish Jackie’s legacy. If we wanted a flabby and uninspired sequel that came too late to capitalize on the zeitgeist, we already have Rush Hour 3. The action is going to be mediocre due to Hollywood shooting schedules, limited budgets, and Jackie’s AARP+ status. The characterization will be non existent. The jokes will be tired and either too woke or tone deaf or defanged. Jackie’s only motivation for doing the film is likely the paycheck. So they either give him control over the script to excise any offensive elements and back up the Brinks truck, or it’s probably not happening.
I get what you’re saying, but I think it’s a little too black and white.
Sure….Jackie Chan has been pretty honest about how he feels about Rush Hour compared to his Hong Kong work. But that franchise also made him a global star in a way nothing else really did in the West. That tradeoff matters.
The clash with Brett Ratner was real, no doubt. Different styles, different priorities. But that doesn’t mean a new one has to play out the same way.
I think it really comes down to control. If Jackie has more say now, that changes things. He is not in the same position he was back then.
As for the humor, yeah, it would have to evolve. But that does not mean it cannot work. The dynamic can still be fun without leaning on the same old jokes.
And honestly, one more sequel is not going to ruin his legacy. If anything, it just depends on how it is handled.
Good points! To be fair, if his legacy can survive Kung Fu Yoga, Vanguard, Bleeding Steel, The Legend, and Panda Plan, it can survive anything!