Among the latest moves from the President of the U.S., it seems like Donald Trump is particularly interested in bringing mega icons like Jackie Chan and Jean Claude Van Damme back in action. This comes after reports claiming that he wants more films like Rush Hour and Bloodsport made, ostensibly wanting to shape popular culture outside of news and late-night comedy.
Per the latest reports from Semafor Media, Trump appears to want to bring back the raucous comedies and action movies of the late 1980s to the late ’90s – like Van Damme’s 1988 sports film that he seems to be particularly passionate about. The reports revealed:
A person directly familiar with the conversations told Semafor that the president of the United States has personally pressed the Paramount owner to revive another franchise from Ratner: Rush Hour, a buddy-cop comedy starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker that blended physical comedy, martial arts, and gags about racial stereotypes.
For those who might be unversed, Brett Ratner’s film series, which kick-started in 1998, ran out of steam by 2007 with its third installment, Rush Hour 3. The fate of the saga, after that, languished for over a decade, and Warner even cut ties with Ratner in 2017, following the s-xual misconduct allegations against him.
But then he started working on Melania, the upcoming documentary on the first lady, and now it sounds like his action-comedy franchise might spring back into action pretty soon.
Here’s an overview of the movies:
Why Donald Trump Wants More Films Like Rush Hour & Bloodsport
From what it seems like, Trump’s reportedly convincing the Ellisons (i.e., David Ellison, the CEO of Paramount Skydance, and his father Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle Corporation and one of the president’s most prominent financial supporters) to make a new installment of Rush Hour might as well be accepted to be one of the pinnacles of his cultural influence as the president, this time around.
Amidst these reports citing the president to be “offering some creative input on potential upcoming projects,” Semafor Media also reported film producer Dallas Sonnier’s prediction about the film industry’s future, which noted,
A wave of classically male-driven movies with mentally tough, traditional, courageous, confident heroes. Maybe even a tad cocky, but dedicated to honor and duty. Plus, of course, a few explosions, gun battles, helicopters, fistfights, and car chases!
Additionally, Rush Hour‘s director Brett Ratner has notably already spent months trailing Melania Trump for his upcoming, presumably soft-focus documentary on her, for which Amazon reportedly paid $40 million. Plus, Arthur Sarkissian, the producer of the franchise, also runs the production company that made The Man You Don’t Know, which was a glowing portrait of Trump that premiered at Mar-a-Lago last year. So that’s that too.
Rush Hour Also Seems to Have Garnered Loyalty From the President
Apart from the aforementioned reasons, Rush Hour also appears to have passed numerous other important tests to garner loyalty from the president. Like the leading stars of the franchise, Chan and Chris Tucker, have reportedly been relatively friendly – or at least muted – toward Trump over the last few years.
For instance, in 2016, after Trump won the elections, Chan told Yahoo Celebrity about the president:
Just give him a chance to try to change America and change the world. He’s a businessman… I think he knows how to handle these types of things.
Tucker, on the other hand, preferred to dodge questions about his feelings on the then-president during his interview with Piers Morgan in 2018. At the time, he had said that he’d met Trump once, and added that he “hopes he does good.” Plus, besides his fairly decent impression of the prez, he also said,
I want him to be successful, I want him to do the right thing.
That said, as readers must already know by now, President Trump has strong views about news media and an interest in asserting them, and he’s even quicker to clap back at the backlash against him. So these actions from Chan and Tucker must have inevitably garnered them and their action-comedy franchise the favor of the president.
This sums this matter up, for now, though it remains to be seen how far the Rush Hour saga actually ends up going. What do you think about this? Do you have some thoughts or opinions of your own to share on this? If yes, then make sure to let us know in the comments section below!
