Rumors are flying, I guess that is what happens when July 4th pops up in the middle of the week and everyone takes time off. Unfortunately last week was my big week off so here I sit looking for news and nothing pops up until word comes from JoBlo.com and Aint-It-Cool-News regarding Jean-Claude Van Damme, Chris Tucker, Jackie Chan and Brett Ratner.
Yup, word spreading around the WWW is that Van Damme will be the main villain in the upcoming sequel Rush Hour 3, which is apparently set to begin filming in August.
From what I can tell the rumor began with a post on IMDB’s Message Boards where a user posted the following comment:
In an interview on British TV, JCVD told one of the presenters that he’s going to be in a film with Jackie Chan, he didn’t say which one, but it’s pretty obvious what it is. He also said filming will be done in his country – so guess JCVD made it in the movie. Besides JCVD isn’t that tall so they kinda match in height.
From that post, which was dated June 2, the story was picked up by JoBlo.com where they reference a few other articles discussing the possible casting choice, but things got a bit more detailed when a scooper over at AICN dropped news of Van Damme’s involvement, a bit on the storyline and an obscure inclusion of a former “Seinfeld” star. That scoop reads like this:
Jean Claude Van Damme has signed on to play the main villain in “Rush Hour 3″(set to film in August). It involves Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker getting mixed up with Triads in Paris. Van Damme spoke on a recent British TV Show about it and was looking forward to working with Jackie Chan. Also rumored to be in the film is Michael “Kramer” Richards in either a big or bit role.
However, if Van Damme is the lead villain the what role will the already signed Vinnie Jones be taking on? On top of that, the IMDB post says that the film will be shot in Van Damme’s country, however, reports indicate the film will be shot in the U.S. and France, not Belgium. At least that is where Chan and Rat were scouting according to these photos.
To add more fuel to the fire IMDB does have JCVD listed as a “rumored” cast member, but that rumor comes with a name as he is listed to possibly be playing Bruno Cavalier. As for the Michael Richards rumor I am at a loss.
So, is there any validity to any of this? Not really, not right now, but I think it would be cool to see Jean Claude back in the theaters and a Rush Hour film just might be the perfect venue.
Finally, if you haven’t clicked to check out that IMDB post you should, once they start comparing Steven Seagal to Van Damme it gets a bit entertaining.
