Brett Ratner boarded Air Force One alongside President Donald Trump on Tuesday, flying to Beijing to scout filming locations for Rush Hour 4 — a trip that fuses presidential diplomacy with one of Hollywood’s most contentious comebacks.
Ratner’s spokeswoman, Victoria Palmer-Moore, confirmed that he will use the China visit to scout locations for the fourth film in the buddy-cop franchise, which Trump has publicly backed for revival. Ratner plans to spend three days overseas, holding meetings with crew members, actors, and potential Chinese film distribution partners, with much of the new film expected to shoot in China.
The trip to Beijing centers on a high-stakes summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Joining the president’s delegation are Apple CEO Tim Cook, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, Meta President Dina Powell McCormick, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Whether Ratner holds official delegation status remains unclear.
The franchise’s three films collectively grossed more than $850 million worldwide, pairing Chris Tucker’s fast-talking LAPD detective with Jackie Chan’s Hong Kong inspector across comedies set in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and Paris. Rush Hour 4 had long been stuck in development, passed over by multiple studios — including Warner Bros. partner New Line Cinema — in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against Ratner in 2017, which he has consistently denied.
The project’s path back to screens runs directly through presidential influence. Back in November, Trump privately pushed Paramount Skydance owner David Ellison to revive the franchise after nearly two decades. Ratner had cemented his relationship with the White House by directing Melania, a behind-the-scenes documentary on First Lady Melania Trump ahead of her husband’s second inauguration. Amazon acquired the film for $40 million — a price that drew criticism as an attempt to curry favor with the administration — before the documentary went on to gross only $16 million globally.
Ratner himself pushes back on the idea that the documentary served as a calculated reentry into Hollywood. “That’s ridiculous,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in January. “I didn’t do this to get me back into Hollywood. That wasn’t my strategy. I’ve been waiting to make Rush Hour 4 — that was my strategy.”
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The revival has not gone without criticism. Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel responded sarcastically when Trump first lobbied for the project: “Trump wastes a lot of time on nothing. Wrong, we’re getting a Rush Hour 4. And next up, The Cosby Show.”
Jackie Chan has made his own impatience clear. In a May 2025 interview, he urged producers to move quickly: “Hurry up! Otherwise, Chris Tucker and me will be 100 years old.” Paramount Pictures is set to distribute the film, produced through Ratner’s RatPac Entertainment.
