Rush Hour 2

”It’s so funny,” says producer Arthur Sarkissian. ”When the press previews movies — like those seasonal previews — ‘Rush Hour’ was one of those ‘also opening this month’ entries. Everyone kind of pooh poohed the picture. It surprised everyone.” Touché! Still, who could have predicted that a ”Lethal Weapon” clone rejected by almost every studio before New Line took the chance (and cast a Hong Kong martial arts master and the motormouth comic from Ratner’s previous comedy, ”Money Talks”) would gross $141 million domestically? Not Sarkissian. Though he suspected the stars’ slowly sown fan bases were ready to be harvested, even he admits, ”I never thought it would break out the way it did.”

Sequel talk started one month after ”Rush Hour” opened in 1998, though finalizing salaries ($15 million for Chan, $20 million for Tucker) took more than a year. The plot came easier. ”Chris and I went to the premiere in Hong Kong,” says Ratner, ”and watching him interact hilariously with the people, and do his Michael Jackson imitations at karaoke bars — bingo.” So instead of Chan coming West again, this time Tucker goes East, and together they get involved in a conspiracy involving casinos, bombs, and ”Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”’s Zhang, in a role originally written for a man but retooled after Ratner caught her performance in the Oscar winning film. Toss in Spanish speaking Sanchez as a CIA operative, and Ratner says the sequel has been a maddening Tower of Babble: ”It’s the funniest thing — no one speaks correct English in this whole movie.”

While the language barrier has been credited with boosting the two stars’ on screen chemistry, it’s also been the source of rumored offscreen tension. Chan, who admits he’s slowly getting hip to Tucker’s brand of comedy, says that the gossip is greatly exaggerated. ”We’re becoming very good friends. Especially right now,” he says, calling in late March from Hong Kong, where the production is about a week behind schedule. ”I go with Chris to eat, I go with Chris to karaoke. I tell Chris, ‘Look: This is my hood now.”’