Rush Hour 2

Plot:
Detective's Lee and Carter have their vacation interupted when they have to stop a group of terrorists.

News:

2 July, 2001

Monstrous Jackie Chan fan 'Marie' reports in on the heavily revamped official website for the movie.

The NEW site has a COOL intro. and has MUCH more info. and photos - even a couple of games ! The sections are as follows with the menu choices :

The Detectives - HKPD LAPD ( about Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker ) E- cards
The Club - The Cast The Filmakers Photo Gallery
The Yaht - The Story Simon Say What ? Screen Savers
The Cassino - Production Notes Slot Slammers AOL IM ICONS
( The trailer is also available on this site. )

13 June, 2001

You can find detailed reports from an early screening of the film here. Beware serious and frequent spoilers if you don't want to know too much ahead of time.

11 June, 2001

There is a new version of the trailer up. Actually two new versions. One has Jackie Chan listed with the top billing and the other with Tucker.

• Hi-Res MOV (Chan)
• Hi-Res MOV (Tucker)

The poster for the movie is now out too. You can see that to the left.

The movie wasn't ready yet for its press junket so the studio just showed a 23 minute piece of the film that included two major fight scenes. You can read the details here. You can also find an interview with director Brett Ratner where he talks about the greatly increased fight scenes in the movie as compared to the original.

9 April, 2001

The official website for the movie has opened. There isn't much there at the moment except for the trailer. While I'm at it we're adding two new names to the cast list, Tanya Newbould and Stephen Sable.

• Lo-Res MOV
• Med-Res MOV
• Hi-Res MOV

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5 April, 2001

Coming Attractions nabbed some photos from a lucky fellow who got onto the set. You can see him here posing with star Zhang Ziyi. There's a guy with real reason to smile. You can see the rest of the photos over at CA.

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19 March, 2001

Lots of pictures to show off today. Dark Horizons scored some publicity stills from the movie and Jackie Chan: Project J got several shots from the Red Dragon set.

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6 March, 2001

Jackie Chan was in Hong Kong for the Lunar New Year with director Brett Ratner. The two were scouting locations in the Central and Wanchai districts. They seemed to be focusing their attention on some skyscrapers, leading to speculation that the movie would feature an action sequence at the top of a skyscraper.

A report in a Hong Kong newspaper had some comments from Chan on the project. He states that Zhang Ziyi is set to arrive on set shortly. Everyone is excited about her arrival, but Chan would prefer she had not been cast as a major villain for her first American movie. Like Jet Li in Lethal Weapon 4, her role will require her to only speak in her native language. He likes the story but thinks that it has too many villains.

During the interview, the a scene was being set up where he and Chris Tucker's character meet Isabella Molina (played by Roselyn Sanchez) for the first time. She plays a spy working for the Secret Service working undercover in Hong Kong. She's there to bring in the leader of a counterfeiting ring. The three characters have something of a comedic love triangle going on.

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7 February, 2001

23 January, 2001

Almost on top of each other Entertainment Weekly and the LA Times have released the first photos from this movie. One is a promo shot and the other looks to actually come from the movie. Word is that the chemistry between the two stars is a bit frosty.

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11 August, 2000

Is it just me or did this news come out of no where? Film has just begun on this sequel. Director Brett Ratner spoke with E! Online about the project. "Chris is now the fish out of water in Hong Kong. He doesn't speak the language, and he's totally lost."

Filming will continue for the rest of the year. Locations will include Hong Kong, Europe and Las Vegas.

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16 December, 1999

Believe it or not there is still hope for this movie. Both Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker have begun negotiations with New Lince Cinema to star in the sequel. New Line wanted to quickly put together the sequel following the surprise popularity of the original. Unfortunately for them, Chan is an extremely busy man and Tucker was suddenly catapulted into the spotlight by the movie, meaning he has lots of offers and now wants lots more money. Chan will apparently make three times his paycheck for the original to star in the sequel. Tucker too should see a huge raise in pay. Production would likely begin next fall after Tucker completes work on Black Knight which starts filming in April. Rush Hour 2 is hoped to be ready for the summer of 2001.

21 October, 1999

Chris Tucker still wants to do Rush Hour 2. Of course it might be awhile before he can clear enough off his plate to work on it though. His next project is Guess Who's President? and after that he could very likely be working on Black Knight, one of those go back in time and be a knight movies that seem to get made every couple years. Essentially he just likes working with Jackie Chan. "We're talking about it,' he says, 'but I want to do it because I want to work with Jackie again." Again, nothing is going to be happening immiediately. He says they want to make sure that it will be a big exciting movie.

14 October, 1999

Last we heard, Chris Tucker was demanding an immense $45 million payday for starring in Rush Hour 2 and Guess Who's President?. In a recent interview, Tucker said he never demanded that kind of money. "I wasn't asking for that. That's what was offered to me, and it looks like it's going to come through." New Line Cinema must be really desperate for a sequel if they want to pay that kind of money to a relative newcomer. Tucker's movies have been fairly successful but not so much that you would expect that kind of pay. Go figure.

He also talked about Guess Who's President? He wants to get Lauryn Hill and Maya Angelou to star with him. Hill would play his love interest and Angelou would play his grandmother. He doesn't want this to be a light comedy either. "It's not a spoof. I've done research with people like Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson. ... I got to go to the Oval Office and meet with the president. ... The film is going to have some seriousness. It starts off when my character is a kid. His grandmother's like a spiritual guide, a prophet almost, who lets him know he's destined to be president… It's going to be an event picture like Forrest Gump. I went to Africa when Nelson Mandela stepped down, and was filming some world leaders there, so I've got some big surprises." I guess he's going to at least work hard for the money.

16 September, 1999

This proposed sequel could be in real trouble. The problem is getting Chris Tucker to sign up for it. Tucker reportedly wants New Line Cinema to pay him $45 million for this movie and Guess Who's President, which he wants to be his next movie. Unsurprisingly, New Line isn't too happy with that idea, so Tucker is looking at other projects like Black Knight with New Regency and the stalled Double-O Soul at Imagine. Since Tucker hasn't made more than $3 million for any movie, this would be a startling pay raise. New Line really wants to make a sequel of the surpise hit but it remains to be seen if they want it that badly.

18 May, 1999

The sequel to last year's Rush Hour should begin filming in the fall in Hong Kong among other places. Brett Ratner will again be the director and Jeff Nathanson (Speed 2) will write the script. Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, the star of the original, haven't signed on yet but are expected to.

5 May, 1999

Coming Attractions posted what could be the basic plot of the movie. This is completely unconfirmed, so take it with a lot of salt. Detective Carter is pursuing a terrorist in LA that is trying to escape to Hong Kong. At the same time in Hong Kong, Detective Lee is chasing a terrorist trying to escape to LA. They realize the terrorists are working together to smuggle bombs. They plan to set off huge bombs in LA and Hong Kong if their demands aren't met. Carter and Lee head to China to try and track down the terrorists before they set off the bombs.

19 April, 1999

Cinecon is reporting that the sequel to last year's Jackie Chan/Chris Tucker hit is set to begin filming by the end of the year. The movie should be out next summer.

17 February, 1999

The Upcoming Movie List had this to say about a Rush Hour sequel:

Detective James Carter and the LAPD are chasing a terrorist who is trying to get out of Los Angeles and get into Hong Kong. Meanwhile, Detective Lee and the HKPD are chasing a terrorist who is trying to get out of Hong Kong and get into L..A.. Which brings James and Lee back together. They discover that the two terrorists they are chasing are actually partners in an illegal bomb smuggling ring in China. The terrorists have placed a bomb in L.A. and a bomb in Hong Kong, each ready to detonate and blow up really good. The terrorists are asking for a very big ransom demand from the HKPD and LAPD. If it isn't payed by rush hour, the bombs will simantaneously explode in the middle of rush hour traffic.

While the HKPD tries to find the bomb in Hong Kong, and the LAPD frantically looks for the bomb in LA., Carter and Lee must track down the terrorists in China and get them to shut the bombs down and bring them to justice before it is too late. Sounds awesome! Remember, this is one of the pitches I heard for the sequel, and there were a couple more. I'll keep you posted. Why New Line hired the guy who wrote Speed 2 is like asking why they remade PSYCHO. It's jsut stupid. Anyways, the working titles are "Rush Hour---The Sequel", "Another Rush Hour" and "Rush Hour 2". Filming should begin by Summer 1999 for a Christmas 1999 release date. Maybe they'll put Tucker's 00 Soul on hold. Because I don't want Rush 2 to be a hyper-drive mess like Lethal 4's production was....anyway's I'll keep you posted on any other happening of our friends Lee and Carter.

8 December, 1998

The Calgary Sun reports that Jeffrey Nathanson will write the sequel to his Rush Hour script. Nathanson had previously stated that he wouldn't write a sequel because he has no idea what to do to bring the main characters back. New Line plans to have the sequel ready for a Christmas 1999 release.