Pack Ratner Heads to Paramount
Filed under: Action, Comedy, Casting, Deals, New Releases, Executive shifts, RumorMonger, Celebrities and Controversy, Box Office, Scripts, Comic/Superhero/Geek
Love him or hate him, you've got to hand it to Brett Ratner for keeping his career in motion. Variety brings word that the hustling filmmaker plans to take his Rat Entertainment company from New Line, where it first settled in 1996, to a first-look deal with Paramount Pictures. Ratner says the departure of New Line execs Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne in February convinced him it was time to move on. At Paramount, Ratner will probably get bigger budgets and executives more receptive to his blockbuster-ready concepts. Stating the obvious, Ratner told Variety he "will not be pitching art films. I want to make major tentpole movies." You don't say?Unless you're Scott Foundas, you probably balk at the idea of more Ratner movies populating the mainstream film scene, but the guy does fit the proper archetype of the classic Hollywood powerhouse. A modern day Sammy Glick, he knows how to make movies that bring out the audiences, whether or not they're any good. But maybe that determination means that, one day, Ratner will make a lot of great movies. His planned Hugh Hefner biopic sounds promising -- or at least, appropriate.
Still, that's a little ways off. Encouraged by his experience with X-Men: The Last Stand, Ratner decided he wanted to work on a new superhero franchise, so he's adapting Valiant Comics' Harbinger. Also in his queue: Beverly Hills Cop 4, The Incredible Shrinking Man and The Boys From Brazil. Do these projects get anyone excited? Anyone at all?
Black Friday Movie Deals: Best Buy
Sex and Nudity Don't Draw You to the Movies?
What Makes a Real Vampire?
Robert Downey Jr. Wants to Retire?
Jaycee Dugard's Horrific Story to Get a Sleazy Adaptation
_thumbnail.jpg)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-31-2008 @ 5:39PM
james said...
I had no idea that Harbinger was being made into a movie. I read it back in the early 90's and remember liking it a lot. But I've only seen one movie made by Ratner (xmen 3) and although I didn't think it was horrible; I'm kind of depressed that he will be shooting Harbinger "The Movie".
Reply
7-31-2008 @ 6:22PM
E-Rock said...
Brett Ratner is a coked-up hack. The Rush Hour movies are all lame and he ruined the X-Men franchise. I'm not even gonna bother with Beverly Hills Cop 4.
Reply
7-31-2008 @ 7:43PM
Andy said...
Ratner is a hack but a Harbinger movie could be so good, especially with Dark Knight and Watchmen getting audiences ready. Don't drop the ball ratner
Reply
8-01-2008 @ 8:37AM
bongo123 said...
How did he ruin xmen3!!!??? the bloody film raked in more cash than the other two and was actually alright bar a few lame scenes, heck the bit where the prof gets wiped out was pure class!
Reply
8-02-2008 @ 2:35PM
Hughman Bein said...
He ruined x-men 3 in conjunction with the studio. They fast-tracked the thing into production so they cut corners and made what should have been a revelation of the mythos into a re-hash of what worked in the previous films. There was no character development. Atrocious dialogue and no focus. Some people blame the multitude in characters, but it was really that there were no characters. The commentary says it all. Ratner raped the comics and gave us bland characters that had multiple powers and no backstory all for the sake of a war that in 5 minutes demonstrated that pacing can weaken any amount of money poured into effects.