There are business meetings and there are business meetings. Next week, director Brett Ratner (Rush Hour 1 & 2) flies to Toronto with hundreds of millions of dollars potentially hanging in the balance.

At issue is Rush Hour 3, which its stars Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker both agree should take place somewhere besides the U.S. or Hong Kong -- although that's all they agree on.

"My idea and Chris Tucker's idea is, 'First movie, I am fish out of water. Second movie, he is fish out of water. Now, why don't we go somewhere where we both are fish out of water?'" Chan told the Sun on location at Casa Loma, where he's filming the spy comedy The Tuxedo with Jennifer Love Hewitt.

"He (Tucker) wants it somewhere in Africa. I say maybe somewhere like Turkey." An assistant suggests Mexico. "No, a lot of people speak English there. Maybe Egypt. Somewhere they really speak no English."

Chan may be tiring of the debate. "He (Ratner) is coming with (a list of) locations. He knows that for the next two years, I am fully booking. And if he not hurry to bring it in, I might not do it for 2003 (the scheduled release date)."

A popular guy, Chan will also be playing host next week to Roger Birnbaum, producer of Shanghai Noon, for a buddy-comedy sequel meeting that should be more of a slam dunk.

The sequel, called Shanghai Night, reteams Chan and Owen Wilson and is set to film March 1. "We start in London then go to Prague," Chan says. "The story is still beginning in Carson City. I'm going to New York to find my partner Owen Wilson. Then somehow we go to London and we fall into a lot of people everybody knows. I can't tell you more, but it's a good story."


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