A blockbuster action film franchise could soon be seeing another sequel, and it may be thanks to President Donald Trump.
Paramount Pictures will reportedly be distributing “Rush Hour 4,” the comedy-action series starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, and franchise director Brett Ratner. A new report suggests Trump may have played a hand in getting a sequel, as he discussed the franchise with Paramount owner David Ellison, who is the son of longtime donor Larry Ellison.
“On Sunday, Semafor, citing a person familiar with the conversations, reported that Donald Trump pressed the Ellisons to revive the Rush Hour franchise,” Deadline reported, adding that, “It’s a big deal to bring this series back to theaters when many yearn to see the return of comedies.”
Deadline confirmed that Paramount is releasing the next “Rush Hour” sequel “on behalf of Warner Bros for a double-digit-percent distribution fee.”
‘RUSH HOUR 4’ is officially in the works
(via: Deadline) pic.twitter.com/EMvZ4rF93z
— ScreenTime (@screentime) November 25, 2025
Trump’s influence, according to the Semafor report, is another way he “wants to shape popular culture.”
“Trump appears to want to revive the raucous comedies and action movies of the late 1980s to late 1990s,” the report notes. “He’s passionate, for instance, about the 1988 Jean-Claude Van Damme sports flick ‘Bloodsport.’ A person directly familiar with the conversations told Semafor that the president of the United States has personally pressed the Paramount owner to revive another franchise from Ratner: ‘Rush Hour,’ a buddy-cop comedy starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker that blended physical comedy, martial arts and gags about racial stereotypes.”
The film’s director, who was accused of sexual assault in 2017, will be back for the fourth “Rush Hour” installment and, as Semafor noted, he “spent months earlier this year trailing Melania Trump for an upcoming documentary on the first lady for Amazon.”
“And Arthur Sarkissian, the producer of the Rush Hour franchise, also runs the production company that made The Man You Don’t Know, a glowing portrait of Trump that premiered at Mar-a-Lago in 2024,” the report read.
“Trump convincing the Ellisons to make a new installment of Rush Hour, whose broad racial humor might have been unwelcome a few years ago (if not much earlier), may be one of the capstones of his cultural influence as president this time around,” the report noted.
Naturally, Trump critics like Jimmy Kimmel were already bashing the connection, complaining that the president was “hard at work on the issues that matter most to America.”
Meanwhile, the stars of the series have been “relatively friendly” to Trump.
“Just give him a chance to try to change America and change the world. He’s a businessman,” Chan said after Trump’s 2016 election victory. “I think he knows how to handle these types of things.”
“I want him to be successful, I want him to do the right thing,” Tucker said in a 2018 interview with Piers Morgan.
The first “Rush Hour” movie was released in 1998.
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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