Following a highly successful career directing music videos, Brett Ratner knew "Money Talks" was the perfect project to help him make the transition to film. "The excitement and pace of the project hooked me. We played up the comedic elements of the script," says Ratner. "And we have a one-two punch because we also deliver in the action department. But the special effects are not over the top. We took our cue from movies of the '80s and early '90s, where the action stunts were done by real stuntmen, not computers. There are no blue screens here. The audience will see professionals doing what they do best -- crashing cars and blowing up buildings."

Music Videos

Ratner has directed more than 50 music videos, including memorable selections from multi-platinum recording artists such as D'Angelo, Heavy D, Mary J. Blige, Foxy Brown, Jodeci, Deborah Cox, Public Enemy and others. He was nominated for a 1996 MTV Music Award for Best R&B video for D'Angelo's "Brown Sugar" and for the NAACP's Award for Best Director, and received numerous honors for his short films, PSA's and commercials.

Ratner has been making movies almost as long as he can remember, starting out when still a youth in Miami. "I would shoot little home movies using my friends. I'm an idiot savant. All I know is movies," he says, laughing, as he crouches behind a camera on the cluttered and crowded set.

Ratner's style in feature filmmaking resembles his quick-cuts experiences with music videos. "I have a very short attention span," he admits. "I have to entertain myself. I can't worry about what the audience might like. I have a specific point of view.

Rush Hours

"Rush Hour" is the second feature for Ratner, the young director whose work on rap videos for music groups like Public Enemy and slick commercials for such clients as Coca-Cola led to his feature debut last year with New Line Cinema's successful "Money Talks," an action/comedy also starring
Chris Tucker along with Charlie Sheen and Heather Locklear. Ratner's new venture, also for New Line (opening nationwide Sept. 18), is another fast-paced combination of fights and foolery about James Carter (Tucker), a Los Angeles police detective who is assigned to keep Hong Kong's Detective Inspector Lee
Jakie Chan

from meddling in an FBI investigation of the kidnapping of a Chinese consul's daughter. Chan, who learned music, dance and martial arts when apprenticed as a child to the Peking Opera, is the veteran of around 70 movies as stuntman, actor, director, writer and producer (often all at the same time), but Ratner appears neither intimidated nor uptight about working with the international star. "He's been making movies longer than I've been alive, but he's so respectful, disciplined and considerate-even in the action stuff when he's doing everything himself," says the 28-year-old Ratner, wise enough to allow Chan, now in his mid-40s, to choreograph his own stunts and offer advice on movement of cast and camera even in action sequences that he isn't in. "I'm focusing on his performance," Ratner says, stressing the need for real emotion to cut through the action and comedy in order to make the movie also a thriller. "The fights have to feel real, [but] the priority is the story, and the fights have to relate realistically to that story," Ratner says, noting this as a marked difference from Chan's usual Asian films, in which the fights are multiple but the plot minimal. "Rush Hour" is set mainly in downtown L.A.-a landscape and backdrop that Ratner exploited freshly in "Money Talks"-with other sequences shot in Hollywood and Pasadena. Much of the filming has taken place at night, but on this day the moviemakers are toiling inside a warehouse that's tucked into a dead-end area of freeway offramps. Outside is industrial decay; inside is a flashy red, gold and faux jade-decorated office above a Chinatown restaurant. Everything looks concrete and nailed down, but much is really flexible and "breakaway"-a big word on an action movie like this, where feet and fists fly every-which-way. Tucker, lean and loose, nattily dressed in suit and tie, has ventured into the room to confront the film's bad guys, also attired in sharp suits. They're played by a striking collection of actors, some from America, some who have come with Chan from overseas. Tucker has only to murmur "Why all so quiet?" for them to leap forward and knock him on his back. The sequence is repeated several times while multiple cameras roll and either Chan or Ratner advise on various changes and Tucker toys with his dialogue. "This is nice, real nice," he murmurs, able to glance at the decor for a second before he gets kicked in the crotch. "That was real childish," he says, laying humor over the necessary grimace, working to pretend he's not a cop but just a "Blackanese homeboy" looking to do business on the wrong side of the law. "You're down, Chris, and it really hurts," Ratner instructs as Chan, tidily outfitted in off-duty black clothing, also suggests how Tucker should move to show off the pretended pain to best advantage.

"Rush Hour." Starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker. Directed by Brett Ratner. Written by Jim Kouf, Ross LaManna and Jeff Nathanson. Produced by Roger Birnbaum, Arthur Sarkissian and Jonathan Glickman. A New Line release. Opens 9/18 wide.

Director filmography

Rush Hours ( 1998 ) Cast: Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, Tzi Ma.

Money Talks ( 1997 ) Cast: Charlie Sheen, Chris Tucker, Gérard Ismaél, Frank Bruynbroek, Heather Locklear, Paul Sorvino, Veronica Cartwright, Damian Chapa, Elise Neal, David Warner.

What Ever Happened To Mason Reece ( 1990 ) Cast: Mason Reece, Rebecca Gayheart, Michael J. Anderson, Linda Wang, Anna Ling, Amy Chow.

filmmaker_brettratner@yahoo.com

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