Rush Hour 3 is a 2007 film and the third installment in the martial arts/action-comedy Rush Hour franchise starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker that began with the 1998 film Rush Hour and continued with the first sequel Rush Hour 2 in 2001. The film was officially announced on May 7, 2006, and filming began on July 4, 2006. The film is set in Paris, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong. Rush Hour 3 was released on August 10, 2007, in Canada, the US, and UK. Academy Award-winning film director Roman Polanski co-stars as a French police official involved in (Chan and Tucker's characters) Lee and Carter's case. Tzi Ma reprises his role as Ambassador Han, Lee's boss and friend who appeared in the first installment. This film has received a M rating by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (Australia) and a PG-13 rating by the MPAA for "sequences of action violence, sexual content, nudity and language".

The film was not screened in Chinese theaters in 2007 due to an "overabundance" of imported films released that year, an import official stated (China only allows 20 imported films to be released nationwide in theaters each year).

At one point, the producers of the "Rush Hour" trilogy considered shooting a third and fourth installment, back-to-back.

Steven Seagal was one of the first actors considered to play a villain. However, the screenplay underwent multiple rewrites that ultimately led to casting Hiroyuki Sanada as the film's main antagonist.

As part of his dream cast, director Brett Ratner tried casting Aishwarya Rai and Li Gong (I), but was turned down by both actresses.

Brett Ratner also tried getting Tony Jaa to do the film, who turned it down due to scheduling conflicts with Ong bak 2 (2007).

Jean-Claude Van Damme was another consideration for a villain in this film.

This is Roman Polanski's first role in an American film in fifteen years (since Back in the U.S.S.R. (1992), an American-Japanese production in 1992), and only his second role in an American film in the past 33 years (since Chinatown (1974)).

Actor Kevin Dillon (I) was cast in a small role in ?Rush Hour 3?. Filming for his show "Entourage" (2004) prevented Dillon from accepting the role, but it was turned into a storyline for Dillon's character Johnny Drama on ?Entourage?.

The production crew agreed upon a $20 fine any time anyone's cell phone rang during shooting. The money would be donated to the homeless charity Chrysalis. By late February, it had over $600.

Jackie Chan (I) had a cracked sternum and bruises to his shins from his stunts. Watch the credits, for an outtake where Jackie throws a table backwards with his legs into himself, accidentally, at Genevieve's suite.

In the airplane scene, Carter orders gefilte fish - a reference to a similar scene in Rush Hour 2 (2001) that never made the final cut, because of Chris Tucker?s inability to pronounce the name of the dish at the time (See ?Rush Hour 2? trivia).

Brett Ratner also tried to add basketball player Yao Ming to the cast, but the offer was declined. Ratner said he wanted to create a scene with Yao Ming similar to that of the scene with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was also a basketball player, in 'Game of Death,' starring Bruce Lee.

In the scenes where Lee is speaking to Kenji, Jackie Chan actually speaks in Japanese.

Having worked with Brett Ratner in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), actor Ian McKellen was asked to appear in this film in the role of Reynard. The part ultimately went to veteran actor Max von Sydow (I). Vinnie Jones, another co-star of "X-Men: The Last Stand", was also rumored to have been approached for a role in this film.

The sword that Kenji is wielding during the final fight is a Jian, a traditional Chinese sword, while Li is using a Katana, a traditional Japanese sword.

In the scene when Lee and Carter first get in George's taxi, during the conversation, George says to Carter, "You guys can't even beat the Europeans in basketball anymore." He was referring to when Greece beat USA in the 2006 FIBA World Cup.