Brett Ratner: The Only Choice for X-Men 3

He’s made a Christmas movie, The Family Man, wherein, the producers, writers and the composer are all Jewish; among other dicey choices, he’s had the great “bolas” to make a Jackie Chan movie, Rush Hour, during a time where that just wasn’t done.

But for Ratner’s newest project, he’ll have to tap further into his unending well of talent.

He’s made a superhero movie. (An X-Men movie, specifically.)

In which case, comic book fans (or underdwellers) will try to crush him, solely, with their bottled hatred spawned from his newly-directed Jessica Simpson music video for The Dukes of Hazard.

(If you haven’t seen the music video, it’s the one where Jessica Simpson sings the Nancy Sinatra staple, These Boots Are Made for Walkin’. I think James Lipton said it best: it’s one of the greatest things of recorded or prerecorded history.)

In a recent press junket, Ratner spoke his mind about the seminal movie of the millennia: X-Men: The Last Stand, or X-Men 3.

So Brett, concluding what can only be described as the greatest trilogy since The Godfather, or The Love Bug, can X-Men 3 match high expectations?

I think the script that Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn wrote gives me a tremendous amount of confidence [Zak Penn wrote Inspector Gadget].
I want to stay true to the franchise and true to the characters, but I think it’s elevated… I don’t want to be pompous and say I’m going to take it to the next level [but I will anyway].

Like most movies – particularly X-Men movies – it’s an amalgamation of genres, no?

This was, by far, the most difficult movie I’ve ever done because it had four different genres in it – romance, suspense, action and comedy [and maybe documentary, also], so, I had to walk the fine line of, How much comedy am I going to put in it [ – should I bring in Chris Tucker]? How much romance [ – should I bring in Fabio]? It was very hard for me to decide the tone of the movie and what type of movie I was really making [it turned out I was making an X-Men movie].

Now, I love X-Men. How much do you love it?

I have been obsessed to do a movie in the superhero world [excluding the Blue Beetle]. I put it out there [I posted it on MySpace]. Obviously, I was going to do Superman [but then they found out who I was]. I grew up on comics as a kid, not X-Men comics but Superman, Batman, Aquaman and all that sh[..] [Aquaman and sh[..] go hand-in-hand]. And so I was obsessed with wanting to do a superhero movie, which is what I put out in the universe [or Earth], and I was hired to do Superman. That didn’t work out and when I heard that Brian wasn’t doing [X-Men 3] I put the feelers out there and said, “hey guys, I would fu[..]in’ die to do an X-Men movie,” because I was such a fan of the two other movies [they then asked me to keep my voice down]. I thought Brian did a brilliant job at translating a comic book into a cinematic world [comic books are often in Hebrew]. You know he was one of the first ones that really did… because X-Men is not as straight forward as Superman and Batman, which are easier things to translate [they’re the Pig Latin of translations].

X-Men, you know, God, there are so many complexities, so many details [so many opportunities to screw up tremendously]. Now that I have been through it, I don’t know [I didn’t quite care for it]. Ten different directors will make ten different movies [none of them, however, would’ve included Gambit]. You know Wolverine was a short stocky guy, so many different things that he [Singer] adjusted that made the movie work on so many levels [stocky Wolverine – you’re dead to me].

The two other movies worked so well on so many levels so I read the script and I wanted to know what are they going to do next [after X-Men: The Last Stand]. How are they going to go to another level [maybe X-Men in Space]? Because there was so much emotion in the story I said I’ve got to do this [emotion is like Chris Tucker’s nasally voice to me].

Brian and the actors [in the X-Men] did such a good job establishing what this movie was [something to do with tolerance, think], so as I stated, I am not trying to reinvent the movie [why reinvent the Xavier wheel?], I was like okay guys this my version now [forget about me not reinventing the movie]. I loved the first two because it read [or viewed] as if it was a trilogy [...that’s the only reason]. It always read like this is the last one [maybe because it was titled X-Men: The Last Stand]. It only made sense to connect the dots [connecting the dots were a novelty before this movie].

Have you ever thought about putting yourself in Brain Singer’s shoes, having had to leave X-Men behind to direct Superman, a real American hero, unlike a commie like Juggernaut?

You know I was thinking about it, I was trying to put myself in Bryan’s shoes. God forbid that I couldn’t direct Rush Hour 3, I would only want Stanley Kubrick to direct it (laughs) [he hasn’t found work in a while]. I would be like, J[…]s Ch[…]t it better be a good fu[..]ing director [like, Brett Ratner good]! So I was very flattered that Bryan was happy for me, that he supported me, that he backed me [in ways that made me feel uncomfortable]. It really meant a lot to me because for me, another director directing Rush Hour? [Why bother?] And I was happy when he got Superman, I was supposed to direct Superman and who knows maybe he’ll come do Wolverine and I’ll do Superman 2 [that best happen!].

Despite having very little prep time, I hear you had a tremendous amount of energy during production of this groundbreaking film. True?

In a movie that is this big, you know, I have energy because its like I’m in love [with my agent]. I can’t wait to get to the set and direct Ian McKellan and Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry [ – Partick Stewart, not so much]. How can I fu[..]in’ be like waiting for shit to happen [I wanna see blood, here], I’ve got to keep [busy]. It’s a hard grueling process, making a movie [and keeping McKellan off me], but I was keeping the pace and the energy going because it’s not easy and I loved every fu[..]ing second of it [mother f[…]er]. I had to pinch myself, the other movies I was like yeah, I always knew that I was going to direct those movies but this movieâÂ?¦I really had to pinch myself [though McKellan would do it for me].

What’s the running-time looking like? Cus’ I hope this film never ends.

I don’t want to say because I am not completely done with it, you know, fans are gonna be happy [there being X-Men and all]. It will not be slow and it will not be fast [it will be “smfast”], you will walk out of that theater satisfied [and loved]. It’s fu[..]ing eye candy watching this movie [breasts and packages are slashed upon the screen]. I mean you see the scope of it but also the emotion [emotion – I will not stress that enough]. You are going to feel spent at the end of this movie like you’ve been through an emotional rollercoaster ride [like a child’s visit to The Neverland Ranch].

What was it like directing Wolverine?

Oh yeah, I love it, Hugh is one of the greatest actors in the world to work with and, hmm, like I said it’s a dream, I mean it surreal for me because being a kid I grew up not reading X-Men comics [too uncanny] but I was in love with the cartoon [Batman: The Animated Series], the cartoon was like the coolest thing ever [the X-Men cartoon, not so much]. All day long, how could I turn it down [besides, the Hong Kong Phooey movie is pending].

Without spoiling anything – but if you’d like, please do – what is your favorite scene?

Without spoiling it? I think the emotional scenes [have I mention there’s emotion? There’s emotion] because the action [scenes] I’ve done in the Rush Hour movies, I mean it’s not as big as this but I’ve done big action stuff but getting the tone right with the scenes that had all the emotion and all the heart [and kidneys, liver, and so on], all the drama in it. When I saw those I was proud of myself because it’s not an easy tone to capture. X-Men is a very specific, there’s a very specific voice [presumably]. It’s not just a regular drama, It’s heightened [it’s a super-dramity: Hamlet, you can eat me].

What are some of the things you wanted to put in the movie?

After going through all the reference material, Simon and Zak are the biggest X-Men aficionados in the world [far greater than my zero knowledge of X-Men]. Looking at X-Men with a critical eye, the first two movies, and seeing and figuring out, because I worked with his team [begrudgingly], what decisions and why decisions were made by Bryan [like why Storm was allowed in the film]. After going through it all and realizing, hey, there were certain things that I wanted to get into this movie [Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, respectively], you will have to wait to see the movie but I wanted to get stuff like the Sentinels in the movie, you know the danger room into the movie. They tried and tried to do it in the last two movies but couldn’t [Xavier wouldn’t let them]. I don’t know because of budgets or who knows [maybe it was elves?].

Now, trying to make the fan boys happy, is like not getting an erection when seeing Halle Berry in that leather costume she wears. Did you try to make the fan base happy?

Yeah, I really respect the franchise, I really respect what Bryan and these actors have done with these movies. I am not on the internet studying their “Talkbacks” and stuff [studying are for nerds] but I know what people like cause Zak and Simon [whom I haven’t meet] are the biggest fans I have ever met in my life [though I have met Stan Lee]. If I say, “where does this happen?” They will name the comic and issue of the comic that it happened in [if I ask where are their wives, they’ll cry]. These guys memorize every detail and there is not a single scene that they can’t give me reference or inspiration from a comic [it keeps me awake at night]. It’s not stuff that they just made up [I didn’t know Wolverine worked at Bennigan’s]. Everything in this movie, there is no way that I can ever be criticized because every scene in this movie exists in a comic book [it’ll be the most derivative movie imaginable].

Batman, for example, went bad after new the new director Joel Schumacher took over the franchise after the sequel. Does that worry you?

I’m not Joel Schumacher… I’m Brett [greatest director, and adventure extrodinare]. And all I know is what I know [mostly Christ Tucker one-liners], what I can do and what I have to work with [which as I understand, is a lot].

I can’t comprehend that this is the last X-Men movie. Isn’t thereÃ?¯Ã?¿Ã?½talk about a Wolverine and Magneto spin off?

In this world, once you see the movie you will be like where else are they going to go [and don’t bother reading the comics for clues]? They can’t go any further than this [everyone dies]. I mean we went far, I mean as far as the scope of the movie, as far as the emotions, drama, the consequences [the scope of X-Men crosses the universe, by the way, just think of that]. It read like this is the fu[..]in’ last movie, period [God-Da[..]it].

What have you learned from making X-Men 3?

How to make an X-Men movie, now I’m ready [to make X-Men 4].