'Rush Hour 4' En Route Whether We Like It or Not?

Please, no Brett Ratner...

Both Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan have remained fairly M.I.A from being leading men on movie screens since they teamed for a forgettable Rush Hour 3.  Tucker was out doing his stand-up routine, but did eventually lock down a nice supporting role in David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook.  Chan has kept busy mostly with roles in Chinese films (1911), and will reportedly wrap up his last action movie ever, Chinese Zodiac soon.  Now the Rush Hour producer says it's sequel time and the boys are into it.

Producer Arthur Sarkissian says he's more than just working on Rush 4.  Tucker and Chan are apparently on board, and this time they want to do things the "right way".  Basically, they want the fourth and most likely final film in the series to be similar to Brett Ratner's original Rush Hour and nothing like their third installment.

But here it is from the horse's mouth (Sarkissian),

“I’m trying to do it closer to how I did Rush Hour 1, more down to earth, more gritty, introduce two new characters and make it real the way the first one was. I personally was not happy with the third one. I thought 1 and 2 were very good. I think 3 got out of hand a little bit. It’s not a matter of just bringing them back to do another segment of that or a sequel to it by putting them in another city and having them bicker. I don’t want that. I want something new.”

It's always a positive when someone involved with a flop acknowledges it was a flop.  He said they're looking for a writer at the moment, and would welcome Ratner back to direct.  However, as you'll see it's hardly a ringing endorsement for Mr. Ratner.

"If he wants to do it he’s more than welcome to do it but he’s got to do it in the right way," Sarkissian said.

That's gotta hurt!  So, more wise cracking from Tucker and butt kicking Chan for 90-minutes is truly on the horizon, or is this producer just imagining what could be?  Time will tell, though don't count me among the disappointed if Rush Hour 4 gets caught up development traffic.