Trump wants to revive the Rush Hour franchise. Is he eyeing a return to Hollywood?

It is said that by 328BC, having made empires kneel to him, Alexander the Great wept … for there were no more worlds to conquer.

Similarly, having solved the Middle East and Ukraine issues with only a couple of technicalities to iron out and put an end to so many other wars as well, Donald Trump may also be tempted to sob at having run out of important tasks. And yet, just as he is about to kneel in anguish on the Oval Office carpet, he is apparently perking up at the thought of one more mighty challenge.

He can revive the Rush Hour movie franchise!

Larry Ellison, the largest shareholder of Paramount Skydance – which, earlier this year, as Paramount Global, settled a lawsuit with Trump not dissimilar to the one he’s recently threatened the BBC with – has reportedly been leant on by the commander in chief to revive the affectionately remembered Rush Hour films – the knockabout buddy cop adventures starring Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan.

A fourth Rush Hour film is reportedly a central part of Trump’s second-term project – a dream of reintroducing some old-fashioned masculinity into Hollywood culture and it would moreover create some employment for that unlovely Tinseltown hombre who directed the first three Rush Hour films – Brett Ratner.

Ratner was accused of sexual assault in 2017, allegations which he denied. But, with privileged access, has now directed a $40m documentary about Melania Trump – the kind of film that can only be described as “soft-hitting”.

Does the world really need or want Rush Hour 4? If it did, surely we would have it by now? Market forces in the brutally commercial Darwinian jungle of franchise cinema would have created Rush Hour 4. Or at the very least rebooted it for streaming TV with a younger cast and maybe David Harbour as the glowering police chief.

The idea of the Rush Hour series is a quirky odd-couple pairing of two cops: Chris Tucker’s James Carter from the LAPD and Jackie Chan’s Yan Naing Lee from the Hong Kong Police Force. They both get to play “fish out of water” comedy – the water being each other’s culture – with some very broad and arguably problematic sexual comedy. And, of course, there are plenty of fights, with Tucker giving us some all-American punch-ups and Chan busting out some uproarious martial arts moves.

It’s all very undemanding, stereotypical stuff and Donald absolutely loves it. Could it be that Rush Hour 4 will feature one of his wooden cameos, or something more? Or it could be that the president is – like Arnold Schwarzenegger – starting to envision a post-political return to the glamorous world of show business. Perhaps he will wish to produce as well as star.

But there is another possibility. Recently, Trump played host to New York’s Democratic socialist mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani; the meeting that many thought could only end in the kind of tongue-lashing that the president notoriously gave Volodymyr Zelenskyy on their first encounter. But no. It was all smiles. A very unexpected bromance seemed to be in the offing. Could it be that Trump likes the idea of Rush Hour because it’s so … inclusive? A black guy and an Asian guy united under the American banner. Has Mamdani finally softened Trump’s worldview? If so, and if Rush Hour 4 is the result, well, it could have been worse.