Rush Hour TV series

[GeneChing]

‘Rush Hour’ To Be Remade As Action Series From Bill Lawrence & Brett Ratner
by Nellie Andreeva • tip
September 30, 2014 2:00pm



A big series project is about to hit the markeplace — a Rush Hour hourlong action comedy based on the blockbuster movie franchise. I’ve learned that Warner Bros. TV has closed deals for the project, which will be co-written/executive produced by one of studio’s top showrunners, Bill Lawrence. The movie franchise’s director Brett Ratner and producer Arthur Sarkissian will serve as executive producers.

Written by Cougar Town co-creator Lawrence and the series’ executive producer/showrunner Blake McCormick, Rush Hour is expected to stay close to the premiere of the original movie, "Rush Hour 3" Los Angeles Premiere - Arrivalswith 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 ****y black LAPD officer, originally played by Chris Tucker, who has no interest in a partner. WBTV declined comment.

Produced by Warner Bros. subsidiary New Line Cinema, Rush Hour was a sleeper hit when it came out in 1998, launching a successful three-movie franchise that has grossed more than $500 million domestically and more than $845 million worldwide. (Below is the trailer foe the original movie). There had been a lot of talk about doing another sequel, with Chan indicating as recently as last month that Warner Bros. was still interested in doing a fourth Rush Hour film, but there is nothing actively in the works.



Rush Hour, from WBTV and Lawrence’s studio-based Doozer, marks a second big project for Doozer this season. A comedy from Tommy Johnagin, Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker recently landed a pilot production commitment from CBS. The ICM Partners-repped company also has series Undateable on NBC as well as Cougar Town and Ground Floor on TBS.

Before joining Cougar Town, McCormick, repped by UTA and Kaplan Perrone, worked on Fox’s King Of The Hill. Last season, Lawrence and McCormick teamed for another hourlong action buddy comedy, Chasing Skips, which had a put pilot commitment at Fox.

Rush Hour joins another big movie title, Minority Report, which was sold as a series to Fox with a put pilot commitment. Ratner has strong ties with Warner Bros. on the feature side. He and his RatPac Entertainment partner James Packer have a first-look deal at the studio. And the duo, along with Steven Mnuchin, have a $450 million deal to co-finance the entire slate of Warner Bros films.

Rush Hour 1
Rush Hour 2
Rush Hour 3
Rush Hour 4

[GeneChing]

With all of the new martial-arts oriented TV shows, I keep forgetting about this one.

Bill Lawrence Talks RUSH HOUR Series, Martial Arts, Character Names
Fred Topel
January 16, 2015
Exclusive, Featured, Interviews, News

TV producer Bill Lawrence was at the Television Critics Association press tour today for his NBC comedy Undateable. After the panel, in which his cast riffed on my flashy red shirt, I asked Lawrence about the Rush Hour TV series he’s developing. He confirmed that it will have martial arts and it will still be the characters Det. Lee and Carter, whom Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker played in the movie.

“New plot, same characters, a little younger, a little different, fish out of water,” Lawrence said. “It’s a cool script. I’m psyched about it.”

There’s got to be a relatively small pool of martial artists who would do television. The script is not picked up to pilot yet, but if it is, Lawrence said he would cast an actor and teach him martial arts.


Rush Hour Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan 1998 New Line Cinema

“The character will be a martial artist but you know how TV works,” Lawrence said. “I’m going to go with the best actor and then I’ll make anything work.”

Lawrence’s forte in TV has been comedy like Scrubs, Cougar Town, Ground Floor and Undateable. He gets the tone of a buddy cop movie though.

“My favorite genre is action-comedy. Midnight Run, favorite movie, Beverly Hills Cop, any of those old movies that had stakes but were still funny. I don’t think anybody’s done one in a while. I’m dying to. It might not work but the closest I cam was I was supposed to write and direct the new version of Fletch at some point but I bailed on it in the middle of it. The movie business is complicated.”

When Rush Hour came out in 1998, Jackie Chan’s old Peking Opera School buddy Sammo Hung had a TV show on the air. Martial Law eventually mimicked Rush Hour by pairing Hung with Arsenio Hall. I’m still waiting for Martial Law to come out on DVD, but Rush Hour will be a comedy first.

“I thought it was a great show,” Lawrence said of Martial Law. “I don’t think it had the same kind of comedy elements that we have but I thought it was really good.”

[GeneChing]

BILL LAWRENCE TALKS RUSH HOUR SERIES, MARTIAL ARTS, CHARACTER NAMES
Fred Topel January 16, 2015 Exclusive, Featured, Interviews, News

TV producer Bill Lawrence was at the Television Critics Association press tour today for his NBC comedy Undateable. After the panel, in which his cast riffed on my flashy red shirt, I asked Lawrence about the Rush Hour TV series he’s developing. He confirmed that it will have martial arts and it will still be the characters Det. Lee and Carter, whom Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker played in the movie.

“New plot, same characters, a little younger, a little different, fish out of water,” Lawrence said. “It’s a cool script. I’m psyched about it.”

There’s got to be a relatively small pool of martial artists who would do television. The script is not picked up to pilot yet, but if it is, Lawrence said he would cast an actor and teach him martial arts.



“The character will be a martial artist but you know how TV works,” Lawrence said. “I’m going to go with the best actor and then I’ll make anything work.”

Lawrence’s forte in TV has been comedy like Scrubs, Cougar Town, Ground Floor and Undateable. He gets the tone of a buddy cop movie though.

“My favorite genre is action-comedy. Midnight Run, favorite movie, Beverly Hills Cop, any of those old movies that had stakes but were still funny. I don’t think anybody’s done one in a while. I’m dying to. It might not work but the closest I cam was I was supposed to write and direct the new version of Fletch at some point but I bailed on it in the middle of it. The movie business is complicated.”

When Rush Hour came out in 1998, Jackie Chan’s old Peking Opera School buddy Sammo Hung had a TV show on the air. Martial Law eventually mimicked Rush Hour by pairing Hung with Arsenio Hall. I’m still waiting for Martial Law to come out on DVD, but Rush Hour will be a comedy first.

“I thought it was a great show,” Lawrence said of Martial Law. “I don’t think it had the same kind of comedy elements that we have but I thought it was really good.”

'cast an actor and teach him martial arts'? srsly?

[GeneChing]

CBS picked up the pilot

‘Rush Hour’, Greg Garcia’s ‘Super Clyde’, Bill Wrubel Pilot Ordered By CBS
by Nellie Andreeva
January 26, 2015 8:00pm


Rush Hour TV Show Jackie Chan

Following Minority Report‘s order by Fox, the other series remake of a blockbuster movie this season is getting a pilot green light. CBS has picked up Rush Hour, co-written and executive produced by Bill Lawrence. It was one of three pilot orders at the network, along with Greg Garcia’s single-camera comedy Super Clyde and Bill Wrubel’s multi-camera Joe Time.




Hourlong action comedy Rush Hour, which had a pilot production commitment, was written by Cougar Town co-creator Lawrence and the series’ executive producer/showrunner McCormick and executive produced by the New Line movies’ director Brett Ratner and producer Arthur Sarkissian. Staying close to the premise of the original movie, the show centers on 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 ****y black LAPD officer (originally played by Chris Tucker) who has no interest in a partner.

Warner Bros TV and Lawrence’s studio-based Doozer are producing, with Lawrence, McCormick, Sarkissian and Ratner exec producing alongside Doozer’s Jeff Ingold. This marks Doozer’s second pilot order at CBS this season, along with a comedy starring Tommy Johnagin.

Super Clyde, from CBS TV Studios and Garcia’s Amigos de Garcia, is a remake of the pilot Garcia originally did at CBS in the 2013 cycle. That season, the first under his overall deal at CBS TV Studios, Garcia received two pilot orders from the network, one for Super Clyde and one for The Millers. The Millers, a multi-camera multi-generational sitcom, was a safer bet, while the single-camera, high-concept Super Clyde — about a meek, unassuming fast-food worker who finds his calling — was considered more of a long shot.

CBS went ahead with The Millers, which went to a second season before being canceled this fall, making Garcia suddenly available for pilot season with little time to develop. He turned to Super Clyde, a project he has been very fond of, so much so that he got CBS and CBS TV Studios to release the busted pilot in fall 2013. “I’m really proud of this show,” he wrote to his contacts at the time. “Mike Fresco did an amazing job directing, and the cast is great: Rupert Grint, Stephen Fry, Tyler Labine and Justine Lupe.”



Bill Wrubel’s Joe Time (formerly The Good Life), from WBTV, had a pilot production commitment. Written/executive produced by former Modern Family executive producer Wrubel in his first season after leaving the Emmy-winning ABC/20th TV series for an overall deal at WBTV, centers on Joe, a family man who struggles with the fact that everyone around him is pursuing their dreams and enjoying their lives more than he is.

[GeneChing]

This would work if they cast Kevin Hart as Carter.

Jon Foo To Play Detective Lee In ‘Rush Hour’ CBS Pilot
by Nellie Andreeva
March 3, 2015 2:29pm



The 1998 Rush Hour movie helped make Hong Kong film star and martial arts wiz Jackie Chan a household name in America, jumpstarting a successful Hollywood career. Now CBS’ TV adaptation of the hit movie franchise is looking to do the same for Jon Foo, who has landed the Detective Lee role played in the movies by Chan.

Written/executive produced by Bill Lawrence and Blake McCormick and directed/exec produced by Jon Turteltaub, CBS’ Rush Hour pilot centers on Lee (Foo), a stoic, by-the-book Hong Kong police officer assigned to a case in Los Angeles, where he’s forced to work with a ****y black LAPD officer, Carter (originally played by Chris Tucker), who has no interest in a partner. A top detective with the Hong Kong police department, Detective Lee is a dedicated professional and master martial artist, a man of few words who knows how to get the job done.

The movies’ director Brett Ratner and producer Arthur Sarkissian also executive produce with Jeff Ingold for Warner Bros TV and Lawrence’s studio-based Doozer.

Like Chan, British actor Foo, who is of Chinese and Irish descent, is a trained martial artist who has done stunt work and built a resume as an international action star. In the U.S., he is probably best known for his role in the 2010 feature Tekken. Foo is repped by Schumacher Management and attorney Lev Ginsburg.

[GeneChing]

May 08, 2015 12:45pm PT by Lesley Goldberg , Lacey Rose
CBS Orders 'Rush Hour,' 'Limitless,' 'Criminal Minds' Spinoff, Medical Drama, 2 Comedies


Courtesy of Everett Collection

Jane Lynch starrer 'Angel From Hell' and 'Life in Pieces' will join the previously ordered 'Supergirl' as the network bets big on existing properties.

With its May 13 upfront presentation mere days away, CBS has begun doling out the remainder of its series orders.

The network, the most tight-lipped of the broadcast bunch, placed its first big bet on Warner Bros. Television's Supergirl with a midweek order. Now, it’s following that with drama orders to adaptations of Rush Hour and Limitless, its Criminal Minds spinoff, and medical entry Code Black. Those join comedies Angel From Hell and Life in Pieces has having made the cut from the nearly 20 produced this past pilot season.

The orders comes as the network is giving a Super Bowl-lifted NBC a run for its money among the coveted 18-49 demographic as the 2014-15 season comes to a close. Among total viewers, CBS — home to hits including The Big Bang Theory, new addition Thursday Night Football and the NCIS franchise — will finish the season as the most watched network for the 12th time in 13 seasons. But the year wasn’t without significant hurdles, including the net’s ongoing struggles to launch a comedy that doesn’t have Chuck Lorre’s name attached and a collection of series, including Stalker, CSI: Cyber and even beloved The Good Wife, that haven’t impressed in the ratings. More worrisome, the traditional syndication market that’s long played a key role in CBS’ billion-dollar franchise formula is waning.

Looking ahead, CBS has ordered the following:

Medical drama Code Black is set in the busiest and most notorious ER in the nation, where the staff confronts a broken system in order to protect their ideals and the patients who need them the most. The series, from Intelligence's Michael Seitzman, is based on the feature documentary produced and directed by Ryan McGarry.

From ABC Studios, the cast includes Marcia Gay Harden — who replaced lead Maggie Grace when the pilot was retooled — as well as Bonnie Somerville, Raza Jaffrey and Luis Guzman. Marti Noxon (Lifetime's Unreal, Bravo's Girlfriend's Guide to Divorce) executive produces alongside Linda Goldstein-Knowlton, McGarry and David Semel, who directed the pilot.

Code Black was one of multiple medical dramas developed this season — and nudged out CBS TV's LFE for the slot — as CBS' Nina Tassler has made the genre a high priority for the network.

The new member of the Criminal Minds franchise — now titled Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders — aired Feb. 8 as a planted spinoff of the flagship, which is awaiting a renewal. The drama focuses on a division of the FBI that helps American citizens who find themselves in danger abroad.

The drama, from Criminal Minds showrunner Erica Messer, is also exec produced by Mark Gordon and Nick Pepper. The series, co-starring Gary Sinise, Daniel Henney and Tyler James Williams, is a co-production between ABC Studios and CBS Television Studios. Missing from the cast is Anna Gunn, who had a central role in the backdoor pilot.

With the order, Criminal Minds rejoins CBS' roster of procedurals with multiple series on the air (NCIS, CSI).

Limitless, for its part, is based on the 2011 feature film of the same name and follows Brian Sinclair (Jake McDorman) as he discovers the power of the mysterious drug NZT, and is coerced into using his newfound drug-enhanced abilities to solve weekly cases for the FBI. Dexter's Jennifer Carpenter co-stars alongside Hill Harper and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.

Writer Craig Sweeny (Elementary) exec produces the CBS Television Studios drama alongside K/O Paper Products' Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Heather Kadin as well as Bradley Cooper and Todd Phillips, with Cooper rumored to cameo in the pilot. Relativity's Ryan Kavanaugh, Tucker Tooley and Tom Forman will also executive produce. The company's Andrew Marcus and Ray Ricord will co-executive produce. The pickup gives Kurtzman/Orci four shows on the broadcast schedule next season: Hawaii Five-0 and Scorpion at CBS as well as Fox's Sleepy Hollow.

Rush Hour, meanwhile, is produced by Warner Bros. Television and is based on the New Line feature film trilogy of the same name. The series revolves around a stoic, by-the-book Hong Kong police officer (Jon Foo) who is assigned to a case in Los Angeles, where he's forced to work with a ****y African-American LAPD officer (Justin Hires, 21 Jump Street) who has no interest in a partner.

Bill Lawrence and Blake McCormick (Cougar Town) penned the pilot and exec produce alongside Doozer's Jeff Ingold and the film's Brett Ratner, Arthur Sarkissian and Jon Turteltaub, who directed the pilot. Aimee Garcia and Wendie Malick co-star. (Lawrence also had a CBS comedy pilot starring Tommy Johnagin in contention, though sources tell THR that it's no longer going forward.) The pickup could give Lawrence two shows on the schedule next season should NBC renew sop****re comedy Undateable.

All four dramas are based on existing formats, giving CBS a leg-up with marketing. For their part, Rush Hour and Limitless were among the crush of remakes to be developed this season as networks bet on existing fan bases to lure new viewers in an increasingly crowed scripted landscape. CBS' pair of remakes join ABC's Uncle Buck with Fox also expected to order its Minority Report drama to series.

On the CBS comedy side, the network has picked up two half-hours — both single-camera vehicles.

Angel From Hell was one of two comedies Tad Quill (Samantha Who) had in the works at the network (the other, Taxi-22, is not yet considered dead). The comedy centers on Amy (Glee's Jane Lynch), who when she enters Allison's (Maggie Lawson) life, claims to be her guardian angel and together they form an unlikely friendship — though Allison can’t be sure if Amy is an angel or just nuts. Kyle Bornheimer and Kevin Pollak co-star in the comedy from CBS Television Studios.

Rounding out the orders is Life in Pieces, from superproducer Aaron Kaplan. The comedy, written on spec by Better Off Ted's Justin Adler and picked up straight to pilot, is a comedy about one family told through the separate stories of its different family members. The ensemble cast includes Dianne Wiest, James Brolin, Zoe Lister Jones, Colin Hanks, Angelique Cabral, Thomas Sadoski and Betsy Brandt.

The order gives Kaplan at least six shows on the air: ABC's Secrets and Lies, HBO's Divorce, ABC Family's Kevin From Work and Chasing Life, as well as Nick's Instant Mom. Meanwhile, of Kaplan's six pilots this season, he still has NBC's Strange Calls in the mix and is awaiting word on a second-season order for Mysteries of Laura.

With the pickups, CBS' total orders for next season are five dramas and two comedies. The network ordered six and two, respectively, last year.

Keep up with all the renewals, cancellations and new series orders with THR's handy Scorecard.

Email: Lesley.Goldberg@THR.com
Twitter: @Snoodit

I re-watched RH1 and was really struck by Jackie dropping the N-word, just prior to the pool hall fight. That sort of humor feels really dated today.