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Who is this Brett Ratner, anyway?
If you've managed to escape the publicity overdrive around last week's release Kites -- a film that has done far better abroad than it has in India -- you must be living under a rock and therefore, aren't reading this article.
The rest of us have been bombarded with news from producer Rakesh Roshan and son Hrithik about 'Hollywood visionary' Brett Ratner who 'remixed' Kites for a global audience.
As the film releases this Friday, read on for a brief look at Ratner.
Read the alternate reviews here: Raja Sen Matthew Schneeberger
Who is this Brett Ratner, anyway?
Born in Miami Beach in 1969, Ratner was schooled in Israel and went to New York University, where he graduated from in 1990.
He cut his teeth on music videos, for artists like LL Cool J and the Wu-Tang Clan, before embarking on several eye candy videos for artists like Mariah Carey and Jessica Simpson.
Who is this Brett Ratner, anyway?
His first feature film Money Talks wasn't a success, but Brett hit paydirt the very next year with Rush Hour, starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker.
The film, about two people from different backgrounds joining forces amid much misunderstanding, was a massive box office smash, and paved the way for two sequels, Rush Hour 2 and Rush Hour 3.
Rush Hour is singularly responsible for longtime Asian superstar Jackie Chan finally breaking into the American market.
Who is this Brett Ratner, anyway?
Ratner, clearly a fan of the superhero genre, was one of the directors on the list for Marvel Comics' X-Men franchise and DC Comics' reboot of Superman, but both the franchises were eventually handled by director Bryan Singer.
However, after Bryan Singer left the highly acclaimed X-Men films to make Superman Returns, Ratner directed the final film in the X-Men trilogy, The Last Stand.
The film was very poorly received, and the franchise seems to have been canned since.
Who is this Brett Ratner, anyway?
It is perhaps because of the Rush Hour movies -- action movies where two characters from different backgrounds meet and fail to understand each other -- that Ratner was picked by the Roshans for the unique task of remixing their Kites.
Brett Ratner's cut, in cinemas this Friday, will be 30 minutes shorter and comprehensively re-dubbed, re-scored and re-edited.
Time will tell if the experiment works. But whether a super-commercial director like Ratner should be allowed to fool around with something made by a solid storyteller like Anurag Basu is surely up for debate.