Sequel Director Is Publishing’s Latest Embarrassing Sugar Daddy
Oh, hey there, literati. Remember when that German factory manager took over Random House? Sad. But take heart: The director of Beverly Hills Cop IV is investing in the biz, too. Exciting!
The highfaulutin’ publishing set will be thrilled to learn the director’s claims to fame include the critically groundbeaking Rush Hour franchise and of course X-Men: The Last Stand (”You bent X-Men over,” raved one critic), plus just generally minting money for Hollywood studios, and eclipsing Stephen Spielberg by all the metric$$$ that count (without the burden of having to truck heavy Oscar statuettes around constantly).
Defamer’s own Mark Listanti praised Ratner, variously, as a “fauxteur,” “superhack,” “sequel whore” and a “hacky mutant director.”
Now Ratner’s launched a new book imprint, Rat Press. It seems to be transferring Ratner’s reputation for cutting originality from cinema to publishing. The Los Angeles Times described the director’s three new film books as follows:
Jim… originally published in 1971… feels pretty dated…
Robert Evans in Conversation with Lawrence Grobel doesn’t break any new ground…
Grobel’s Brando conversations… are for the most part culled from his voluminous 1978 Playboy sessions…
With any luck this guardian angel of the printed word will start a newspaper, too.
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
Brett, tell your people to call my people (which, ahhh, is basically me because the summer interns from Barnard haven't shown up yet)
I see a coffee table book. Big. Heavy. Glossy. C-lassy The title?
BRETT RATNER'S BABES.
I'm not entirely sure BR can read.
He doesn't need to read.
He has people that do that for him.
He's like a monk. Silent, deep in thought, wearing nothing but a Snuggie, while he flys high above LA in his specially outfitted "Rat Blimp".
It's only up there, amongst the clouds that Brett can free his mind and clearly work out how to grab another ten dollar bill from the clenched hands of twelve year old moviegoers, again and again and again.
Yes, he does sometimes use a rope to climb down from the blimp and slither into his house whenever he needs to speak to the oracle: the disco ball high above his dance floor that holds the ashes of Allen Carr.
@DrFeelgood: Don't forget Chris Tucker as Balthasar.
Mark Lis"t"anti?? The new Defamer would do well not to mention its far superior previous incarnation, but if you are going to name-check the most talented person to ever write here, you could at least bother to spell his name right.
ZaredBabanacka
I remember an entire Vanity Fair profile devoted to the thesis that Brett wasn't a complete hack. It wasn't convincing.
One of Hollywood's best money makers and worst movie makers.
saltwater
He strongly resembles Cosmo Kramer. Not a compliment.
@rudolphdude: You got it!