14 DAY TRIAL // Those who believed the “Rush Hour” franchise was dead and buried since 2007 when the third installment came out were wrong. A new film is now in the works, with Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan set to return to reprise their roles.
Producer Arthur Sarkissian spoke to Crave Online just recently about the possibility of revisiting the “Rush Hour” franchise, revealing that said possibility is actually a given fact: a fourth film is happening as we speak.
Sarkissian says that he was personally disappointed in the third installment, which could only mean that he believes the franchise did not exactly end on the high note he'd hoped it would.
The fourth film will remedy that. Plus, it will bring back Tucker and Chan as the charismatic and mismatched duo of cops, while also adding new characters into the mix.
In other words, this could go down the same path as “Mission Impossible,” which offered both something for fans of the original franchise and something for those who were not familiar with the previous installments.
“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,” Sarkissian says.
“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,” the producer explains.
Of course, the time lapse between the films will also be reflected in the story, which means fans will find the characters at a different point in their life.
“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 says.
He also reveals that there's no screenwriter attached yet, which clearly means that there's no script either.
As for who might helm the fourth film (Brett Ratner directed the first 3), Sarkissian says he'd gladly have Ratner back – on one condition, though.
“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,” he says.