{"id":482034,"date":"2026-05-13T05:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T05:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/482034\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T05:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T05:21:11","slug":"rush-hour-4-brett-ratner-scouts-locations-in-china-with-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/482034\/","title":{"rendered":"Rush Hour 4: Brett Ratner Scouts Locations in China With Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBrett Ratner<\/a> hitched a high-profile ride to China aboard Air Force One in the latest show of support President Donald Trump<\/a> has bestowed on the controversial director.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe once-canceled director will use the trip to scout out locations for Rush Hour<\/a> 4, his first narrative feature since being accused of sexual misconduct and harassment in 2017 (he\u2019s always denied any wrongdoing). The buddy-cop movie, which Paramount Pictures is distributing<\/a>, reunites Ratner with franchise stars Jackie Chan<\/a> and Chris Tucker.<\/p>\n

\n\tTrump departed Edwards Air Force Base on Tuesday for a summit in Beijing that will include a one-on-one meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe South China Morning Post <\/a>was the first to report that Ratner was among those traveling with Trump, as well as the reasons why, with Ratner spokesperson Victoria Palmer-Moore later confirming the trip. It remains unclear, however, as to whether he is part of the summit\u2019s official delegation, a roster that includes Elon Musk.<\/p>\n

\n\tRatner\u2019s presence isn\u2019t a huge surprise, considering he directed Amazon MGM Studios\u2019 Melania<\/a>, the behind-the-scenes documentary shadowing First Lady Melania Trump<\/a> as she prepared for her husband\u2019s second inauguration. The film, released in theaters in late January, earned north of $16.4 million at the domestic box office before landing on Amazon\u2019s streaming service Prime Video.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd in November 2025, several months after David Ellison officially became Paramount\u2019s new owner, Trump appealed to longtime friend and billionaire Larry Ellison, David Ellison\u2019s father, to lend a helping hand. At the time, numerous sources from rival legacy studios told The Hollywood Reporter that while Rush Hour 4 has enormous box office potential, associating themselves with Ratner wasn\u2019t worth the negative headlines.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe younger Ellison has also established his own relationship with Trump, and is counting on the Oval Office\u2019s continued support of his bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery<\/a>. WBD is the home of cable news network CNN, which has long been a target of Trump\u2019s wrath. Trump was more than happy with the conservative-leaning changes Ellison has made at CBS News since acquiring Paramount; now, all eyes will be on what Ellison does with CNN.<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount, which isn\u2019t involved with the financing or production of Rush Hour 4, referred questions about Ratner\u2019s trip to China to his production company, RatPac Entertainment (the production outfit is owned by the London-based Access Entertainment, led by Len Blavatnik and James Packer). <\/p>\n

\n\tThe first\u00a0Rush Hour\u00a0film in 1998 was Ratner\u2019s first major break on his way to developing two more films in the buddy-cop franchise that collectively earned more than $850 million at the worldwide box office, not adjusted for inflation.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn an exclusive interview with THR<\/a> in January, Ratner denied he used Melania as a stepping stone to waging a comeback. \u201cThat\u2019s ridiculous,\u201d he said. \u201cIf anything, this was a bigger risk because of the polarization and subject matter. I didn\u2019t do this to get me back into Hollywood. That wasn\u2019t my strategy. I\u2019ve been waiting to make\u00a0Rush Hour 4\u00a0\u2014 that was my strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brett Ratner hitched a high-profile ride to China aboard Air Force One in the latest show of support…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[268],"tags":[110650,434,18,117,19,17,110652,152232,30888,10595,63373],"class_list":["post-482034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-brett-ratner","tag-celebrities","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jackie-chan","tag-melania","tag-melania-trump","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-rush-hour"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116565592360704911","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}