After spending years in development hell, Rush Hour 4 may finally become a reality. Per Deadline, Jackie Chan was present at the Red Sea Film Festival where he provided a fruitful update on the long-gestating sequel. The actor says that he's now in active talks for the sequel, revealing that he was prepared to meet with the movie's director on Thursday night. Chan didn't clarify if franchise co-star Chris Tucker would be joining him, though that seems more likely than not, given that the chemistry between the two was the beating heart of the film trilogy.
"We're talking about part 4," Chan is quoted as saying to the enthusiastic crowd.
Chan stopped short of naming the director for Rush Hour 4 that he'd be meeting with, an indication that it won't be Brett Ratner. All three prior installments were directed by Ratner, but chances are, he won't be involved with the fourth movie. In 2017, during the rise of the MeToo movement, Ratner had been leveled with several allegations of sexual misconduct. This led to Warner Bros. parting ways with the filmmaker, who hasn't been able to get behind the camera for a new movie ever since. Last year, Ratner reportedly boarded the upcoming Milli Vanilli biopic, but he was gone from the project by the time production began with new director Simon Verhoeven.
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The actor also spoke about how he figured the original Rush Hour would bomb, planning to retire from Hollywood after its release. Chan referenced the frustration he'd feel when given one role after another for an East Asian detective in America, admitting that he begrudgingly accepted his Rush Hour role. When the movie was a hit, he stuck around for a while longer in Hollywood to make more movies, including a pair of sequels along with many other films.
As Chan explained, "My manager said look, there’s a script, and it’s called Rush Hour. I said no, Hong Kong police? I’m not going to do it. He said Jackie, why don’t you try last time. I said okay, this is the last time.”
Chan admits that he doesn't analyze numbers when it comes to financials and box office results, but he knew that Rush Hour was a hit when he was called by both Ratner and Tucker, informing him that the film made $70 million in its debut weekend. It went on to gross more than $244 million in its run, all against a budget of less than $40 million. Numbers aside, it was obvious to Chan that the film was a hit, and that was made further evidence by the sequels that followed.
“For me, I don’t have a count of what 70 million is," Chan said. "I don’t know the box office. I just know it's certainly a success. And then they made part 2 and part 3."
Rush Hour 4 hasn't been officially announced, as it doesn't seem to have been formally greenlit just yet, therefore there's no release date at this time.