Convicted felon and American President Donald Trump‘s involvement in the media has been a perilous subject; one that involves massive ethical and political questions about freedom of speech, mergers and acquisitions, and the future of late-night television. It’s to the point where even a seemingly inane piece of news, such as this one, is still loaded with problems about what the future of the movie industry could be. With that in mind, let’s try to wrap our collective thoughts around the comedic notion that Trump is apparently really pushing for a new “Rush Hour” film.
Acting and stuntman legend Jackie Chan has always had a sense of prominence in films, but his popularity in the United States was brought to even greater heights with 1998’s buddy cop comedy, “Rush Hour.” Paired with fast-talking Chris Tucker, the mismatched duo raced around Los Angeles causing comedic mayhem while trying to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a Chinese diplomat. The film was a massive financial hit and would spawn two sequels in 2001 and 2007.
The law of diminishing returns would kick in combined with series director Brett Ratner being accused of sexual assault; resulted in the film series being put on ice.
The film rights have been in the hands of Warner Bros., and if you’ve been following the news lately then you may have heard about how the company is effectively putting itself on the market to be bought up. One of the biggest speculative buyers is the former Skydance, now Skydance Paramount after having acquired the massive studio. How does Trump tie into this? Well, it’s speculated (with good foundation) that Paramount has been playing VERY nicely with Trump, including paying him off in a settlement over an episode of “60 Minutes,” installing a new Trump friendly news director at CBS, and cancelling the very not-Trump friendly “Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
Sources have indicated Skydance owner Larry Ellison is a close Trump ally, and POTUS has been leaning on him to make more movies that Trump likes. If you wanted an indication of what those films are, you can refer back to an article we wrote in January of 2025 that reported on Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone, and Jon Voight being appointed by Trump as “Special Ambassadors” to Hollywood. And even though none of them were involved in the Rush Hour franchise, Gibson and Stallone specifically know their way around a buddy cop film. And that leads us back to why Trump wants another one made.
Could it be fun to see Tucker and Chan on another misadventure? We’ll go with, “Possibly, sure.” That opinion changes sharply if Ratner is involved again. But a film like this doesn’t exist in a vacuum; it would still represent the merging of Skydance Paramount and Warner Bros., possibly Discovery too if that’s included in the acquisition. The fewer major studios that exist, the less distribution options become available for films and the fewer creative minds involved in greenlighting projects. There really is no legitimate good that comes from companies of this size merging together, and while we didn’t have “Rush Hour 4″ on our bingo card of harbingers of doom, it could easily be one.
