Scorsese and De Niro, Capra and Stewart, Kurosawa and Mifune, Ratner and Tucker...spot the odd one out. Yes, it's Brett Ratner and Chris Tucker, who announced this morning that they are going to collaborate for a fifth time on an adaptation of the book Mr S.: My Life With Frank Sinatra.
The book is a dishy tell-all written by George Jacobs, Sinatra's long-time valet, with William Stadiem, who is a long-term Old Hollywood biographer and screenwriter. Apparently the story weaves in celebrity anecdotes involving Marilyn Monroe, Peter Lawford, the Kennedys, Ava Gardner, Humprey Bogart, Mia Farrow, Elvis, Marlene Dietrich and legendary agent Swifty Lazar.
New Line bought the rights to the book, with Ratner attached to produce and direct and Tucker - who met with Jacobs this summer and apparently "bonded" with him - looking likely for the lead.
""It's like a love story between two very unlikely people," Stadiem, who's also set to write the script, told Variety. "Brett is a Rat Pack obsessive, and so it's fun to work with someone so passionate about the period. I think he's channeling Frank sometimes."
Well, it does chime rather well with his Playboy project, if not his previous work. But with the strike looming and Tucker prepping a stand-up tour, this may not happen for some time to come, so Tucker fan (sorry, fans) might want to set up some kind of rota for the Rush Hour movies to keep them going until then.