The list of names accompanying Donald Trump to China for his high-stakes summit with Xi Jinping reads like a cross-section of American power: Elon Musk, Tim Cook, Larry Fink of BlackRock, Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone, and Kelly Ortberg of Boeing. And of course, Brett Ratner, the “Rush Hour” and “X-Men: The Last Stand” director, is reportedly joining the presidential delegation, according to the South China Morning Post, not as a business executive but as a filmmaker looking to scout locations and lay the groundwork for production on “Rush Hour 4.” The film is planned to be shot in China, and Ratner’s presence on a trip designed to repair diplomatic and commercial relations between Washington and Beijing creates a genuinely unusual convergence of geopolitics and Hollywood franchise planning.
The “Rush Hour” franchise’s presence in these particular diplomatic conversations is not accidental. Trump is said to be a personal fan of the Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker buddy cop series, and reportedly made a direct request to Paramount to revive it. That kind of presidential enthusiasm, combined with the administration’s broader push to rebuild commercial ties with China, gives “Rush Hour 4” a political dimension that most film productions never acquire. Ratner, who directed the 2024 documentary “Melania” and is traveling with the delegation that includes Trump, Musk, and an assembly of the most powerful figures in American business and technology, arrives in Beijing with considerable institutional support behind a project that also represents something more personal: his first feature film since sexual assault and harassment allegations made by multiple women in 2017 ended his Hollywood career. Ratner denies the allegations.
Brett Ratner Rush Hour 4 China: The Comeback Context
‘Rush Hour 4’ Director Brett Ratner Reportedly Heading to China With Trump to Scout Locationshttps://t.co/kxw0lXGMGD
— Variety (@Variety) May 13, 2026
“Rush Hour 4” carries significant weight beyond its box office potential. Ratner was among Hollywood’s most commercially successful directors at the height of his career, with the “Rush Hour” franchise, “Red Dragon,” “The Family Man,” and “Tower Heist” all demonstrating a reliable ability to deliver mainstream entertainment at scale. The 2017 allegations that emerged during the MeToo movement effectively removed him from the industry, and his return has been gradual and not without controversy.
The “Melania” documentary represented his re-entry into active production. Amazon acquired it for $40 million, a sum that drew immediate criticism from those who argued the company had overpaid to curry favor with the administration, and it went on to gross $16 million globally, making it a financial loss theatrically. Amazon maintained that its Prime Video performance provided a fuller picture of the film’s success. “Rush Hour 4”, a project with genuine franchise recognition, an established audience, and the backing of Paramount, represents a different order of commercial opportunity entirely. Whether the industry and audiences are prepared to receive Ratner’s return on a project of this scale is a question the film’s development will answer in stages.
What the China Trip Represents
‘Rush Hour’ director Brett Ratner joining Trump, America’s top business leaders in China https://t.co/ZKCgetdHNd pic.twitter.com/ZfieFyQzMa
— New York Post (@nypost) May 12, 2026
Trump’s delegation to Beijing is designed to address the commercial and diplomatic damage inflicted by an extended trade war and Middle East tensions. The business figures accompanying him: Fink, Schwarzman, Miebach of Mastercard, Ortberg of Boeing, Dina Powell McCormick of Meta, represent industries with significant exposure to the state of US-China relations. Ratner’s presence in that company reflects the specific and longstanding commercial relationship between Hollywood and China, a market that has been increasingly difficult for American studios to access and increasingly important to the economics of major film releases.
“Rush Hour 4’s” planned Chinese production locations place it squarely within the diplomatic agenda of the trip, using a beloved franchise with documented popularity in China as a soft power vehicle alongside the harder business negotiations happening in the same rooms. Whether that positioning ultimately benefits the film’s reception on both sides of the Pacific, or complicates it, is something that will become clearer as production moves forward. A spokesperson for Ratner did not respond to a request for comment.
Featured image: New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection
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