'Boys From Brazil' remake will follow 'Rush Hour 3' for Ratner

From now on, whenever you think of Nazis hiding out in Brazil, you can think of Brett Ratner.

According to both industry trade papers, New Line has recruited the "Rush Hour" director to oversee an entirely unnecessary remake of Franklin J. Schaffner's 1978 film "The Boys From Brazil," which was based on a bestselling Ira Levin novel.

You'll recall that the movie starred Laurence Olivier as a Nazi hunter who discovers that Dr. Josef Mengele is alive and well and attempting to clone Adolf Hitler. The film also starred Zap2it favorite Steve "The Gutt" Guttenberg.

Richard Potter and Matthew Stravitz are writing the remake for Ratner ("Family Man") to direct.

Apparently the writers will stick to the Levin novel, but Variety is reporting that the remake will be set in the present day. Does that mean that Ratner will build his action around 90-year-old former Nazis being tracked down by fellow geriatrics? Hopefully he didn't pitch his vision as "'Cocoon' meets 'Shoah.'" That would be bad.

New Line already has Ratner hard at work on "Rush Hour 3," which begins shooting this fall and will be in theaters for Aug. 10, 2007 with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker both returning to duty.

Ratner last went behind the camera on "X-Men: The Last Stand."