Rush Hour 4 Development Details And More

Hard as it might be to believe, more than two decades have passed since Hong Kong action legend Jackie Chan teamed up with quippy comedian Chris Tucker for the first "Rush Hour" movie. Perhaps more unexpected than that on-screen pairing was the film's runaway success at the box office; the modestly budgeted actioner netted more than $244 million in global ticket sales, thus launching one of least likely trilogies ever to dominate the big screen.

Essentially a "Beverly Hills Cop"-styled buddy cop flick with an international bent, the first "Rush Hour" movie finds Tucker playing a loud-mouthed L.A. detective opposite Chan's crack Hong Kong inspector. The duo plays up the culture clash for lots of good laughs after they inadvertently find themselves working the same case. Fueled by Chan and Tucker's infectious chemistry — and fit with a bevy of suitably Chan-centric set pieces — "Rush Hour" proved an absolute blast when it hit theaters in 1998. Ditto for the ensuing sequels, 2001's "Rush Hour 2" and 2007's "Rush Hour 3."    

To date, those films have pulled in close to $1 billion worldwide at the box office. So even if more than 20 years have passed since Chan and Tucker first traded one-liners on the big screen, it's easy to see why studio bosses might still be eager to get them back together for more shenanigans. Though a fourth entry in the franchise has seemed close at hand over the years, "Rush Hour 4" has yet to materialize — but that might be about to change. Here's everything we know so far about "Rush Hour 4."

There have been rumors of a "Rush Hour 4" since 2017, but things really started moving in December 2022, when Jackie Chan attended the Red Sea Festival and said he was in talks for a fourth installment in the franchise. A few months later in March 2023, Chris Tucker went on V-103's "Big Tigger Morning Show," where he similarly said that "Rush Hour 4" was in his future.

Things went kind of silent after that ... until The Hollywood Reporter dropped some shocking info in August 2024. According to the trade, Warner Bros. — the studio behind the first three "Rush Hour" movies — has licensed out the series to Tarak Ben Ammar of Eagle Pictures. Ben Ammar served as executive producer on both "The Equalizer 3" and "Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile," and he's currently looking for a studio to potentially distribute the action-comedy. But evidently, there's a very controversial condition to getting the movie made.

According to the THR report, part of the "Rush Hour 4" pitch includes bringing along Brett Ratner as both a director and producer. We'll delve deeper into Ratner later on, but he directed all three previous "Rush Hour" movies and has become persona non grata in Hollywood due to sexual abuse allegations. Due to his connection, The Hollywood Reporter says that Paramount and Sony aren't interested in distributing the film, and while Lionsgate has heard what Eagle Pictures had to say, it's unknown if they've agreed to the deal.

It's very clear that both Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker are interested in "Rush Hour 4." In 2019, Tucker went on the "Winging It" podcast and said exactly that. "Jackie Chan wants to do it, I want to do it ... so we're trying to get it together." And at the aforementioned Red Sea Festival in 2022, Chan revealed that they were talking about doing the fourth film. So the big stars seem aligned in their desire to reprise their beloved roles ... but it's not yet set in stone.

In August 2024, when talking about the future of the franchise, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that neither Chan or Tucker are officially part of the upcoming film. In fact, it seems that potential director Brett Ratner is closer to being involved than the two actors ... which is kind of shocking. We're assuming that if the movie ever gets made, Chan and Tucker will be the leads, but could the movie work without these two?

The idea of recasting the franchise if both decide to pass seems positively absurd — though it's technically already happened with different actors appearing as Carter and Lee in the short-lived 2016 CBS "Rush Hour" comedy series the franchise inspired. But as this seems like a sequel as opposed to a reboot, we're thinking the two OGs have to return or what's the point?

Everyone was pretty confident that if "Rush Hour 4" was moving forward, the one person who wouldn't return was Brett Ratner. The original director of the first three "Rush Hour" movies, Ratner also helmed titles such as "The Family Man," "Red Dragon," "Tower Heist," and "X-Men: The Last Stand," one of the very worst "X-Men" movies. But we're not upset about the spotty track record (heck, we even think "Red Dragon" is kinda' solid and part of one of the most underrated trilogies out there). We're shocked because of the numerous allegations against the filmmaker.

In 2017, the Los Angeles Times revealed that six women were accusing Ratner of sexual misconduct, including assault. Ratner has denied the claims, and while he's never been charged with anything, he hasn't directed a movie since 2014's "Hercules," starring Dwayne Johnson. With a wealth of directors out there — both comedy veterans and up-and-coming talent — it seems odd that the folks behind "Rush Hour 4" are wanting Ratner to sit in the director's chair, thus scaring off potential studios from distributing the movie. It'll be interesting to see which company eventually agrees to the deal or if Ratner will eventually be swapped out for a new filmmaker.