For just about a decade-and-a-half, Chris Tucker’s only acting gigs have been alongside Jackie Chan in the Rush Hour series. That’s all about to change this year when he joins Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro and Jennifer Lawrence in David O. Russell‘s drama Silver Linings Playbook. And now this return to Hollywood could also mean stepping back into one of his most famous roles.
Crave recently spoke to producer Arthur Sarkissian, who opened up about his plans for a fourth Rush Hour film, as well as his direction for the characters. He said he has the screenwriter job narrowed down to just a few people and as for Brett Ratner returning as director he stated, ““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.” Check out his quote on the fourth film and what he thinks about the franchise 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.”
Thankfully he can acknowloege how terrible the third film and as someone who genuinely enjoys the first two for what they are, hopefully they head in the right direction. One possibly route may be “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.”
He also kept in mind Chan’s recent retirement from action movies, saying, ” “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.” Lastly, he compared this latest film to the recent Fast Five, and how they switched up the formula for that film. Check out his quote below.
“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.”
It at least sounds like his head is in the right direction, but we’ll have to wait and see if the actual film follows through. Tucker certainly seems to be excited to get back into the swing of things. Ice Cube recently revealed that the actor will be back for another Friday film, along with the rest of the crew. As for Rush Hour, let’s just hope they can capture the fun of the earlier films and stray away from the sheer stupidity of the last one. In other words, maybe don’t call Brett Ratner again for this one.
What do you want to see in Rush Hour 4? Do you like the possible storyline?