Brett Ratner Directing Ben Stiller in 'Tower Heist'

It's been a while since Brett Ratner directed a movie. He's directed, of course; the guy's made tons of commercials in the past couple years. But in terms of films, Ratner hasn't made one since Rush Hour 3. There have been a couple TV shows and a segment in the anthology New York, I Love You, but Tower Heist will be his first feature film in four years or so. What's Tower Heist? Deadline says it's about a group of hotel workers who, realizing the Bernie Madoff-type character who stole their pensions is being held under house arrest at their hotel, plan a heist to get even. Ben Stiller will play the manager of the hotel and the ringleader, so I suddenly think this is a dark comedy along the lines of that ABC show about guys robbing Mick Jagger's apartment. I think it lasted about three weeks. Brian Grazer will be producing for Imagine, and the film has the go-ahead from Universal. I don't hate the concept and it's the sort of thing Ratner can do fairly anonymously, and that may be when he's at his best. "It has become the quintessential New York heist movie, where a bunch of blue collar employees in a tower building pull off the ultimate heist," The Rat told Deadline. "The major difference from the Ocean's Eleven film is those guys were expert thieves. These are real guys whose talent is they know the inner workings of the building and the people in it." "It took a long time for this to come together, but it was totally worth the wait. This has a lot of heart to go along with the humor."