They landed Brett Ratner... WOOO HOOO!
Take a breath....
Ratner has good taste. He can make $100 million look like the most beautiful $75 million you've ever seen on screen.
So what is Paramount getting itself into?
Well, the relationship seems mostly about Beverly Hills Cop IV, being written by the geniuses who "wrote" Wanted... I seem to remember a few words somewhere in that crapfest... and soon to be directed by Ratner, who will surely have the very hottest ethnic women in Hollywood in the backround of every scene of Axel Foley walking around Beverly Hills.
The biggest question about the "first look deal" is whether Ratner can deliver his first "tentpole" that's not a 3rd X-Men or a Rush Hour film to gross over $210 milion worldwide.
Even though the last Beverly Hills Cop was 14 years ago - have you notcied that Par is now acting like MGM and teh Walking TE Corpse Of New Line, desperately trying to revive any former hit? - it is a sequel. So there is no point in comparing it to Ratner's originals, none of which has grossed as much as $125m worldwide. But Red Dragon, at $209m ww, seems fair to worry about. And the fact that Rush Hour 3 grossed less than either of its predesessors domestically and about the same as the first film worldwide (27% off of RH2) is also a cause of concern.
A decade into his career as a director, there is no indication that Ratner is a better bet on a project than, say, Dennis Dugan or Brian Robbins. Goiod luck all around.
1 - X - Men: The Last Stand - $459.3 - 2006
2 - Rush Hour 2 - $347.3 - 2001
3 - Rush Hour 3 - $255.0 - 2007
4 - Rush Hour - $244.4 - 1998
5 - Red Dragon - $209.2 - 2002
6 - The Family Man - $124.7 - 2000
7 - After the Sunset - $61.3 - 2004
8 - Money Talks - $48.4 - 1997
Read the complete post at http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/archives/2008/07/more_great_news.html