“Can you understand the words that are coming out my mouth??” They’re back!!! 2007 will see the long awaited third chapter in New Line Cinema’s “Rush Hour” series hit the screen. “Rush Hour 3” reunites the major players behind the franchise with Brett Ratner taking the directors chair once more, and leading men Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker returning as Detective’s Lee & Carter in an adventure that takes the team from the mean streets of LA to the Champs Des Lysses in Paris, France for what promises to be the biggest and best “Rush Hour” yet…

Rush Hour 3 Preview
By Ian Powers

The Fastest Hands In The East & The Biggest Mouth In The West Are Together Again

Six years have passed since we last saw LAPD detective James Carter (Chris Tucker) and Hong Kong Police Chief Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan) in action, and as the film opens Lee is on special assignment as head of the security detail for Chinese Ambassador Han (Tzi Ma), who has come to America to address the World Criminal Court in Los Angeles. Ambassador Han intends to reveal not only the inner workings of the Chinese Triad Societies, but also the identities of several of their leaders.
When the Triad’s launch an assassination attempt to remove Han from the equation, its’ up to Lee to stop them, something made all the more difficult by Carter’s presence. The two unlikely friends join forces once again to try and stop the Triads and uncover the truth, in an investigation that takes them from LA to Paris and tests their bravery, their skills and their friendship to breaking point as they battle French red-tape, the Triads and each other.
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Has it really been 6 years since we last saw a “Rush Hour” movie? And while the intervening years have seen Jackie Chan headlining a number of Hollywood and Hong Kong productions including  “Shanghai Knights”, “Tuxedo”, “The Medallion”, “Around The World in 80 Days”, “New Police Story”, “Rob-B-Hood” as well as cameo appearances in “Twins Effect 1 & 2”, and Director Brett Ratner helming such projects as the romantic comedy thriller “After The Sunset“ starring Pierce Brosnan & Salma Hayek, “Red Dragon” and last year’s epic “X-Men: The Last Stand” as well as the pilot for “Prison Break” and a number of music videos. It would seem that only Chris Tucker has been taking it easy, with the third “Rush Hour” movie marking his return to the screen for the first time since “RH2”.

Brett Ratner takes the helm once again with a script by Jeff Nathanson whose credits as screenwriter include “Rush Hour 2” and “Catch Me If You Can”, cinematography by J Michael Muro ( “Miami Vice”, “Crash” and director of cult classic “Street Trash”) and Arthur Sakissian, Roger Birnbaum, Jay Stern, Jonathan Glickman and Andrew Z Davis as producers.

Jackie Chan reprises the role of Lee for the third time in “Rush Hour 3”. Chan has spent a couple of years concentrating on his Hong Kong films again with “New Police Story”, “The Myth” and most recently “Rob-B-Hood”, all of which achieved great success in Hong Kong and across Asia.. Watching Chan in action its hard to believe that April 2007 will mark Chan’s 53^rd birthday, and while he’s spoken recently of looking for “new blood” to take his place, Chan has a number of projects in development including what promises to be a full blooded return to the directors chair in a project rumoured to be “Armour of God 3”, and hopefully Derek Yee’s dark “Shinjuko Incident”.

Chris Tucker makes a welcome return to the screen after a six year absence, his most recent film having been 2001’s “Rush Hour 2”, although Tucker has been returning to his stand up roots with a recent tour. Tucker had previously shown his range as an actor with a solid dramatic turn in the classic “Dead Presidents”,  as well as memorable performances in “Friday”, “House Party 3”, “Jackie Brown” and “Money Talks” which marked the directorial debut of Brett Ratner. However Tucker took a break between “Rush Hour” and the first sequel, and a longer break between the 2^nd and third turning down a number of projects, although he did appear in PBS’”African American Lives”, which saw Tucker tracing his ancestors to a tribe in Angola, who he later visited.

"Rush Hour 3” also boasts a very solid supporting cast including Ming the Merciless himself Max Von Sydow, whose credits include everything from Ingmar Bergman’s “The Seventh Seal”, “Flash Gordon”, “Minority Report”, “Conan The Barbarian” to cult classic “Strange Brew”, which saw him battling Bob & Doug McKenzie . Sydow plays the mysterious Reynard, rumoured to be involved with the World Criminal Court, but recent pics of him holding one of the lead actresses at gunpoint suggests his character may have a dark secret or two he’s trying to protect.

Rising star Zhang Jing-chu, the beautiful China actress last seen in Tsui Hark’s “Seven Swords” , “Jade Warrior”, and soon to be seen alongside Andy Lau, Daniel Wu, Louis Koo and Anita Yuen in Peter Chan’s epic “Protégé” makes her American debut as Soo Yung, the Ambassador’s daughter from the first “Rush Hour” now moving into adulthood. While Japanese actress Youki Kodoh from “Heavens Burning” with Russell Crowe, “Memoirs of A Geisha” and most recently the “Masters of Horror” episode “Imprint” directed by Takashi Miike, plays Jasmine, and French actress Neomie Lenoir who worked with Ratner on “After The Sunset” and whose other credits include “The Valet”, and “Asterix & Obelix Mission Cleopatra” plays Genevieve a potential love interest for Detective Carter.

Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada who most viewers will remember from “The Last Samurai” and can soon be seen in Danny Boyle’s “Sunshine“essays the role of Kenji, a recurring nemesis of Chan’s character. And a martial arts face off between the two of them should be one of the highlights of the film.   Sanada, who made his debut as the younger incarnation of Sonny Chiba’s character in “The Executioner”, is a protégé of the great Sonny Chiba and a graduate of the Japan Action Club, where he studied martial arts, screen fighting, stunts and acting alongside the first lady of Japanese Action Cinema Etsuko Shiomi (“Sister Streetfighter”). Sanada’s credits include “Roaring Fire”, “GI Samurai/Time Slip”. “Ninja In The Dragons Den” alongside Conan Lee, “Ninja Wars”, and classic Hong Kong actioner “Royal Warriors/Police Assassins” alongside Michelle Yeoh and Michael Wong, as well as the well received romantic drama “Hero Interview”, and Chen Kaige’s “The Promise”. Sanada also performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company in their production of “King Lear” in 2000, marking the first time a Japanese actor had performed with the theatrical group and earned him an MBE.

The films impressive action set pieces are being handled by acclaimed second unit director Conrad Palmisano whose credits include “Rush Hour 2”, “X-Men: The Last Stand”, “Lethal Weapon 4”, “Assassins”, “X-Men” and most recently “The Marine”. While the fight sequences are of course being choreographed by Jackie Chan & the Jackie Chan Stunt Team, with Brad Allan (“Gorgeous”, “Peter Pan”, and “Chronicles of Riddick”) running the team for the shoot including Korean superkicker Mong Cha-cha (Hyung Jin-park), Wu Gong, Han Guan-ha, Lee In-seob and Pang Zheng. The films finale reportedly takes place in Paris in and around the Eiffel Tower. (Jackie’s official website showcased a number of shots of Jackie, Chris, Brett Ratner and the crew working for some time on the tower.)

“Rush Hour 3” began shooting in Paris on September 30^th 2006, and is provisionally set for North American release on August 10^th 2007. Chan’s next scheduled project after completing “RH 3”, is the long awaited Jackie Chan/Jet Li movie based loosely upon “Journey to The West”, to be action choreographed by the great Yuen Woo-ping. For the latest on “Rush Hour 3” and Jackie Chan, keep reading Impact.

Rush Hour 3 Factoids:

“Rush Hour 3” was first hinted at in the out-takes of “RH 2”, when as John Lone’s character Ricky Tan is kicked out a window to his death, Chris Tucker adlibs “Damn, he ain’t gonna be in Rush Hour 3”!!

Shortly after “Rush Hour 2”, there was talk of shooting “Rush Hour 3 & 4” back to back.

Africa & Egypt were amongst possible locations discussed for the sequel, before the film-makers decided on setting the film in France.
Chris Tucker reportedly received a cool US$ 25 million paycheck for the film, while Chan’s salary has yet to be confirmed, it would appear to be very close to Tuckers, but with Chan also being given the Asian distribution rights for the film as part of his deal.

It was also rumoured that the character of Hu Li, the assassin played by Zhang Zhi-yi in “Rush Hour 2”, would return for the third installment. Her character seemingly died in a bomb explosion at the finale of the second film, but her actual death was not seen on camera and I’m sure they could have thought of a way to explain her characters return.

Early reports on casting for the film included the strange combination of Steven Seagal & Hong Kong actor/singer Ekin Cheng as villains, while Bollywood beauty Aishawara Rai and Sir Ian McKellen were also rumoured to be amongst the cast. Thai martial arts hero Tony Jaa was also in the running for the role of the films main villain, while other rumours suggested that Impact’s original cover star Jean Claude Van Damme was going to make a villainous appearance, with his name even turning up on the imdb.com cast listing for the film. While Director Roman Polanski (“The Piano”, “Repulsion”) plays a supporting role as does Mainland Chinese Basketball player Sun Ming-ming.

Chinese basketball player Sun Ming-ming who makes an appearance in the film clocks in at an astonishing 7 foot 8 inches in height, nearly a foot taller than “Fearless’ & “Tom yum-goong/Warrior King” villain Nathan Jones. Sun and his size 20 feet get to practice his slam-dunk on Chan & Tucker in a fight scene inspired by the Bruce Lee/Kareem Abdul Jabbar fight from “Game of Death”.  MTV News visited the set and broadcast behind the scenes footage from this fight in early January, the first officially seen footage from the movie.

Jackie Chan suffered an injury to his chest while filming one of the fight scenes for “Rush Hour 3”, when his chest connected with some impact on a steel-reinforced table. The incident aggravated an older injury in the same place suffered during the shooting of “Rob-B-Hood” when a stuntman wearing steel toe capped shoes connected with Chan’s chest.

The first teaser trailer for “Rush Hour 3” has recently been released, a stoic voiceover rolls over stock footage, stating  that over the centuries France has been conquered by the Roman’s, attacked by the British, defeated by the Germans and divided by revolutions. But asks if France can survive the invasion by a force like no other, before cutting to Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan singing “Voulez Vous Coucher Avec Moi, Cest Soir?” from “Lady Marmalade” to a bemused taxi driver. It might not be the most politically correct trailer, but it does make you smile.

Impact’s Eastern Editor Mike Leeder & Ean Tang were brought in to handle the Asian Side of Casting for the film, with 5 months of casting seeing them auditioning actors and actresses in China, Hong Kong, Korea & Japan. Sadly it seems like Leeder won’t be making an onscreen appearance as he did in Jet Li’s “Fearless”.

Thanks to Mike Leeder Eastern Editor: Impact Magazine www.impactmoviemagazine.co.uk

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