Warner Bros. TV are bringing back the fish-out-of-water buddy comedy, Rush Hour. Don’t worry, you needn’t waste resources on rolling your eyes. Sure, everyone’s a smidgen cynical about the remake/reboot/adaptation cycle the industry is stuck in. But this new venture holds promise: Bill Lawrence, of Scrubs and Cougar Town fame, is on board to write and produce the show.
Under his Doozer Productions banner, Lawrence will co-write and produce along with Cougar Town showrunner Blake McCormick. As a massive fan of Lawrence’s comedy style, this news isn’t quite as sigh-worthy to me as it first seemed. Original franchise creator, Brett Ratner, and Arthur Sarkissian will also oversee the project as executive producers.
In what’s touted to be a series of hour-length episodes, we can expect the show to remain loyal to the Chris Tucker-Jackie Chan franchise:
Rush Hour is expected to stay close to the premiere of the original movie, with a stoic, by-the-book Hong Kong police officer, played in the features by Jackie Chan, assigned to a case in Los Angeles, where he’s forced to work with a cocky black LAPD officer, originally played by Chris Tucker, who has no interest in a partner.
Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema’s first foray into the franchise began in 1998, and came to a close in 2007 after netting $845 million worldwide. It’s amazing that a fourth instalment hasn’t been actively developed.
The emergent trend of raiding movies for serial ideas is catching on. Fast. Just earlier today we reported that 20th Century Fox had acquired the 80s classic Big, with plans to turn it into a 30-minute episodic event series. While there’s always cause for skepticism with remakes, this proposed re-invention of Rush Hour looks to be in capable hands.
With Lawrence at the helm, could the Rush Hour TV show be a bigger smash than the film series? Sound off below!
