Inside Brett Ratner's Rush Hour With New Issue of Haute Living

Haute Living is proud to announce the release of the anticipated 3-Year Anniversary Issue of Haute Living Florida. The much talked about issue features acclaimed director Brett Ratner on the cover. This is an exclusive interview done at his estate in Beverly Hills, before his Rush Hour Three Premier.

Miami, FL (PRWEB) August 10, 2007 -- Haute Living is proud to announce the release of the anticipated 3-Year Anniversary Issue of Haute Living Florida. The much talked about issue features acclaimed director Brett Ratner on the cover.

The issue is focused on the LA market, in anticipation of the launch of Haute Living Los Angeles, set to debut October 2007. "Brett Ratner made the perfect representation for our cover," explains Co-Publisher Seth Semilof. "He is from Miami, and went to New York before making it big on the West Coast. In the past three years, Haute Living has been following a like path. Now we turn our eyes to the City of Angels, and get ready to take over Hollywood."

The cover photo shoot took place at Ratner's fantastic Beverly Hills estate, Hillhaven Lodge. Ratner invited Co-Publisher Kamal Hotchandani into his home, and discussed his intriguing tale of his rise to the top of his industry, thanks to blockbusters like Rush Hour, Red Dragon, and X-Men: The Last Stand (pg. 72).

Here is some great quotes from Brett in the Story:

Quote 1

For Brett Ratner, his whole life has been about directing. "When you love something, it shows and it works," he says. And the world knows that, without a doubt, Brett Ratner loves directing. He has for as long as he can remember, spending the days growing up on Miami Beach tooling around the sets of Miami Vice and Scarface, even scoring an un-credited role as 'Boy Laying on Raft' in the 1983 Brian De Palma film. Ratner was 14. So sure of his eventual career, he convinced his young mother to skip him forward in school. "I told my mom I was too smart for the kids in my school," he recalls. "I think I went from second to fifth grade; I skipped third and forth grade. I wanted to be a director, and I was like, "Oh my God, I have to wait until I am 18? That's half my life!" It is a flair that served him well, as evidenced by the now-legendary tale of talking his way into film school when he was just 16. (The story has Ratner turning up at the dean's office after receiving a rejection letter, pleading, "If you don't let me in, I'll spend the next few years on my mom's couch." He received an acceptance letter two weeks later.) That story, while full of cinematic drama, may have been stretched from the truth, which is that Ratner was good friends with the Miami Beach police chief, who was great friends with John Tisch (think The Tisch School of Art at NYU). "I think I was the Ferris Bueller of Miami Beach; I had the whole place just wired," he says with a laugh from the comfort of his California home. While he may have found extreme levels of success on the West Coast, he credits it all to Miami Beach

Quote 2

Ratner can claim some responsibility in the transformation of Miami Beach from a geriatric haven into an international haute spot. When Bruce Webber came to town in 1985 to shoot a Calvin Klein campaign, the Beach was suddenly crawling with models with nothing to do. It was Ratner and Shareef to the rescue. "We started inviting the models [to The Forge], and it was just me and Shareef with twenty girls all of a sudden," Brett recalls. "My three best friends were Anthony Michael Hall [The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles], Pauly Shore, and Matt Dillon, and I said, 'Come down to Miami!' So me and Anthony Michael Hall and all these pretty young models are having dinner. So then Chad McQueen, Mickey Rourke--he was a waiter at The Forge--all started having these dinners, and all of a sudden, every time actors came down to Miami, they would come to The Forge." Brett got on the payroll, earning $500 per week for his effort turning the restaurant into a must-see on Miami Beach. The Forge, now owned by Shareef, still reigns supreme as the place to go for sophisticated Miami Beach nightlife.

Quote 3

One such mentor is producer Bob Evans, who took Brett under his wing upon Ratner's arrival in Hollywood. "I met Brett when he came into town during Rush Hour, and I immediately took an interest in him because he is dynamic, positive, likeable, and terribly, terribly serious worker with the outside veneer of a kid, the inside of his body and brain is that of a brilliant film maker," says Evans. Ratner even resided with Evans for a period of time before purchasing Hillhaven. It was Evans' "old school Hollywood" house that prompted Brett to go on a hunt for a home like Hillhaven. After seeing Evan's place, Brett says he "called [Evan's] broker, who I knew was very big in LA, and he said 'Those houses don't become available unless someone dies.' So I moved into the Beverly Hills Hotel and stayed there for six months--cost me a fortune! And then I get a call, and he's like 'Somebody died, get over here!'"

Quote 4

The Hollywood rumor mill has been in full swing with talk of Ratner directing a biography of Playboy founder Hugh Heffner, with the possibility of Paris Hilton landing a role. Flashback to his childhood in Florida, watching one of his mentors, Don Soffer, out on his boat. "I remember times Jeff [Soffer] and I would go spy on them, and they would be on the Monkey Business with all the Playmates on the boat. And we'd be like, "Oh my God! One day…" It seems that day is today. And it shouldn't be long before the rest of Ratner's dreams come true as well.

To commemorate this special issue, Haute Living has increased the size of the magazine from typical 9"x11" to an over-sized 10"x12".

"The new size not only brings added benefits to our advertisers, but allows us to portray our exclusive editorial content with amazing quality and clarity," says Co-Publisher Kamal Hotchandani.

For a subscription to Haute Living, please email subscriptions @ hauteliving.com; for more information about where to obtain a copy of the Special Anniversary Edition, contact contactus @ hauteliving.com.

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