Director Brett Ratner's Unrecognized Return

Brett Ratner (Instagram @brettrat)

JAKARTA - Seven years after his hiatus, director Brett Ratner is reportedly planning to return to Hollywood with his latest film. Last week, Ratner was asked to direct a biopic about the duo Milli Vanilli.

Milli Vanilli is a German R&B pop duo who received a Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1990. They were one of the most successful duo actors in the early 90s until their lip-sync case went viral.

As a result, their Grammy Award was returned and the incident became the talk of its time. For a decade, Ratner has been linked with the biopic Milli Vanilli. As quoted from Deadline, previously this project will be worked on by The Kennedy/Marshall Company.

The project was continued after all of Milli Vanilli's hits such as Girl You Know It's True, Blame It On The Rain, and others were acquired from group member Fab Morvan to be featured in the film. Considering that Ratner was directing, RatPac Entertainment (Ratner's production house) would be on the production side. Meanwhile, this biopic is the 51-year-old director's latest work after directing Hercules in 2014.

However, Ratner's return to the film industry was not welcomed. The Time's Up organization which focuses on the campaign against sexual harassment reacted to this news.

The Time's Up organization was founded on January 1, 2018, in response to a sexual harassment case by Harvey Weinstein and the Me Too movement. To TIME, many of Weinstein's victims have spoken out about the case and Time's Up is supporting the survivors.

🛑 There should be no comeback for #BrettRatner. 1/2 https://t.co/09JCOwdkME

— TIME'S UP (@TIMESUPNOW) February 20, 2021

Sexual Harassment

In October 2017, in the midst of the Me Too movement, an agency employee named Melanie Kohler claimed Ratner for rape 12 years ago. Her courage to speak in public came after the Harvey Weinstein case surfaced.

A few months later in November 2017, six women told the Los Angeles Times. Olivia Munn said the director did something inappropriate on the set of After the Sunset in 2004.

Apart from Munn, there was Natasha Henstridge who said Ratner followed her into the bathroom. That same month, actor Elliot Page said, Ratner said something hurtful to him on the set of X Men: The Last Stand.

"You have to have sex with him (Page) to realize he's gay," this is what he (Ratner) said of me when he met the cast and crew before filming X Men: The Last Stand. I was 18 years old at the time,” said Page.

Actress Anna Paquin confirmed the story. "I heard it. I support you," said Paquin in reply to Elliot Page's tweet.

Warner Bros production house also terminated the agreement with RatPac Entertainment for 450 million US dollars. The film Rampage, starring Dwayne Johnson, was the last film to be financed by Warner Bros and RatPac Entertainment.

In his statement, Ratner wrote that he himself chose to end activities with Warner Bros. However, he has never spoken about sexual harassment claims until recently, he is reportedly a producer for a film about GameStop.

Charlotte Kirk's Message

In 2019, the public was shocked by a message leaked between Brett Ratner, actress Charlotte Kirk, Warner Bros CEO Kevin Tsujihara, and James Packer. Kirk wanted to land a lead role for a Hollywood film project.

In this case, Ratner took on the role of mediator and helped Kirk get a film project. But Charlotte Kirk accused she was being paid to have sex not to act in films.

Brett Ratner's side said the director had done nothing wrong and that he tried to make Charlotte Kirk known with a number of films. Ratner advises Kirk to seek an audition by herself.

Time's Up Response

Shortly after the announcement of Brett Ratner's return to the world of cinema, the organization Time's Up voiced over Deadline's report that Millenium Media appointed Ratner as director of the biopic Milli Vanilli.

"Not only did Ratner never admit or apologize for the harm he did, but he also prosecuted the law in an attempt to silence the voices of survivors - a predatory tactic," said Tina Tchen, president and CEO of Time's Up.

“You don't go away for a few years then come back and act as nothing happened. We did not - and will not - forget. And Millenium Media should be like that too. There shouldn't be a comeback. #wewontforgetbrett. "

🛑 There should be no comeback for #BrettRatner. 1/2 https://t.co/09JCOwdkME

— TIME'S UP (@TIMESUPNOW) February 20, 2021