The IMDB can be a morass of misinformation, as all of you hopefully know. It takes no effort to get something on the database, while little short of a nuclear missile can remove a project once it’s been attached to a name. And I know you’ve been just burning to know which of the projects on Brett Ratner’s slate are actually still viable, so the relaunched Movieline (nice job, guys!) got the man to explain what he’s actually doing.
You can read their entire list of confirmations/debunks in the original article, but here are the three most notable ones:
Conan The Barbarian
“Yes. That’s something I’m actively attached to. We’re just budgeting
the script and trying to figure out when’s a good time and where to
shoot it. It’s kind of a global landscape.”
Beverly Hills Cop 4
“Yes.” And it could be before or after Conan, or somewhere else. Ratner is still developing the script. But will it be PG-13? “No. That’s ridiculous. It’s a hard R.”
Trump Heist?
Yes. That’s the script that’s closest to getting made, in my opinion.
Ted Griffin, who wrote Ocean’s Eleven for me when I was attached, is
writing it now. I just hired him to come in and write Trump Heist,
which is one of my favorite projects….But that’s one I’m really, really
interested in making.
Just in case you’re thinking that Ratner is some kind of opportunist when it comes to getting a project made…yeah, you’re basically right. “There’s no order to these movies, though. I don’t
control the financing. Whichever gets greenlit first is the one that’s
gonna go.” But that’s how almost everyone works; Ratner is just a lot more open about all the stuff he’s got on the table. At least the one he really wants to do is a property that no one is invested in yet.