Tim Allen has claimed he once talked Donald Trump out of becoming a film producer, recounting the moment the then-reality TV star changed his mind about venturing into Hollywood.
The 72-year-old Santa Clause star recalled having dinner with the now-president prior to his move into politics.
Speaking on Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast, Allen said that at the time Trump was still starring on reality game show The Apprentice, which ran from 2004 to 2010, and was mulling a move into the film business.
“He was thinking of moving to Los Angeles and being a movie producer, and he was talking about movies,” remembered Allen. “He said, ‘I really like the film business.’ More than that, the guy’s addicted to comedy. I was killing at the table, and he was going: ‘What a gift. What a gift to do that.’ He was laughing about this and that.”
Allen continued: “He said: ‘So if we got a studio together, let’s say the movie cost around $100 million.’ And then I said: ‘You’ve gotta double that, at least, for the promotion, so you’ve got $200 million for the movie’. He goes: ‘What if the ticket sales are slow?’ You lose!
“And he goes: ‘But you gotta make up the loss somehow. How do you make up the loss?’ I said: ‘Well, there’ll be some tax benefit, but you lose the money. That’s how come the studios struggle. They’re looking for winners. You amortize your loss with losers over winners.’
“He goes, ‘Oh.’ He completely decided at that moment, I’m not gonna get in this business,” Allen said.
“He says: ‘If I buy a bad building, and it won’t sell, I still have the f***ing building. If you have a s****y movie...’ And I said: ‘No, this is not an easy business.’”
It was reported in November that Paramount is developing Rush Hour 4 after Trump personally pushed to revive the buddy-cop franchise nearly two decades after its last installment.
Paramount will theatrically distribute the newest action movie on behalf of Warner Bros after WB’s own New Line studio, which made the first three movies, passed on the release, Deadline reported in November. Disgraced director Brett Ratner is attached to direct and produce the movie, which will also see the return of original stars Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker.
The original Rush Hour, released in 1998, was a comedy featuring martial arts and jokes about racial stereotypes as it followed two police officers working together to rescue a Chinese diplomat’s kidnapped daughter. The movie was a huge box office win, and the sequels turned into even bigger commercial successes.
