The Rush Hour franchise is a series of American buddy cop action comedy films created by Ross LaManna and directed by Brett Ratner with both Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker in leading roles.

The films incorporate elements of martial arts, humor involving fish out of water situations and East-West culture shock, and the buddy cop subgenre.

For example, the scene where Inspector Lee accidentally grabs Detective Johnson's (Elizabeth Peña) breasts is a reference to Jackie Chan's film Mr. Nice Guy (1997).

The screenplay was sold by LaManna's William Morris agent Alan Gasmer to Hollywood Pictures, a division of the Walt Disney Company, with Arthur Sarkissian attached as producer.

John Lone, Zhang Ziyi, and Roselyn Sánchez join the cast while actors Don Cheadle, Saul Rubinek, Gianni Russo, and Jeremy Piven have guest or cameo appearances.

[5] Academy Award-winning film director Roman Polanski co-stars as a French police official involved in Lee and Carter's (Chan and Tucker's characters) case.

[6] Because of the films' collective box-office success, director Brett Ratner and writer Jeff Nathanson are considering the production of a fourth installment.

Ratner and Nathanson are exploring many concepts, including the use of the motion capture technique for the possible sequel and various different film projects with Chan and Tucker.

[7] In July 2009, in an interview, Ratner stated that he "has been in contact with a long list of stars including Danny DeVito and Jet Li for possible roles in a potential Rush Hour 4", but stressed "nothing's been okayed yet".

[12] In November 2016, while promoting Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, Tucker reaffirmed his optimism for a potential fourth film, stating “Yeah, we’re talking about it now doing another one, and we’re trying to get it going.

I love working with Jackie and I think we could do a really fun one.” In April 2017, it was reported that Indian actor Shah Rukh Khan had said yes to join the Rush Hour 4 cast.

[18] In March 2019, That Hashtag Show reported that a female led Rush Hour reboot was in development by STXfilms with Li Bingbing in the lead.

[23] It was announced that Jon Foo and Justin Hires would star as Detectives Lee and Carter for the CBS series, along with Aimee Garcia and Jessika Van in regular roles.