Chris Tucker Filming ‘Rush Hour 4’; Octavia Spencer Sought

*”Rush Hour” producer Arthur Sarkissian confirmed over the weekend that “Rush Hour 4” is finally in production with its two returning stars.

”I am working on ‘Rush Hour 4′ right now with Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan,” he said. “I’m trying to do it closer to how I did ‘Rush Hour 1′, more down to earth, more gritty, introduce two new characters and make it real, the way the first one was.”

Sarkissian says the new production will be ”more gritty” in a similar way to the franchise’s 1998 debut, which saw the pair portray cops who team up to retrieve a kidnapped child.

One of the new characters being courted is Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer to play the wife of Chan’s alter-ego Lee.

”Maybe Chris is now married, maybe Jackie is married to Octavia Spencer, I don’t know,” he said. “Married to Chris’s cousin, they live in Shanghai, Chris goes out to visit them. I don’t know, I want something energetic. Why not? If it’s good, script is good you’ll get anybody.”

Sarkissian is not completely sure what the film’s storyline will be, the producer admits he ”was not happy” with the third installment, which saw Lee and Carter (Chris) head to Paris to protect a French woman with a good knowledge of Triad secret leaders.

He told CraveOnline: “I thought 1 and 2 were very good. I think 3 got out of hand a little bit. It’s not a matter of just bringing them back to do another segment of that or a sequel to it by putting them in another city and having them bicker. I don’t want that. I want something new.”