Q: Harry Knowles has come up a couple of times. Have you met him?
Ratner: I might have my facts a little bit off, but I think this is true. You can post this and see if he responds he probably wont, because hes too busy with whatever hes doing.
I think Harry Knowles is a complete hypocrite. Thats my personal opinion of him, because hes become a different guy. I met him over the internet in 1996 or 7, when they first started. Somebody told me there was this cool guy doing reviews and I went to check him out. Nobody in Hollywood knew about him. What Im saying, if my facts are straight, is that Quentin Tarantino was the person who knew and maybe Quentin told me about him.
I dont remember how I got introduced to Harry. But I started emailing the guy, because I love movies. Thats all I know! I know ****. I started talking to him Did you see this one, Yeah, tell me what you think! When I would see a movie I would write in, but he never printed my reviews because Im a filmmaker.
Q: Did you have anything out yet?
Ratner: This was before Money Talks! I wasnt even a ****ing feature director. I was a film student basically, doing music videos. I would do these ****ing emails back and forth with the guy and then we would start talking on the phone. And we would talk and talk and talk and talk and talk. For hours and hours and hours. This was before he had any influence, so I had no reason
this guy was my friend. I was the first guy. Nobody talked to this guy, you know what Im saying?
I got $150,000 to direct Money Talks. I had negative $250,000 in the bank. Do you understand? I had no money. I had no money. I took the only money I had left and flew him and his fat ****ing father to ****ing LA. Him and his fat ****ing father to LA for the premiere of Money Talks. The first ****ing time Harry Knowles was in LA
Q: And you flew him out there.
Ratner: I flew him out there. I brought him to LA. Now he might say, Not true! In 1996 I blah blah, maybe Robert Rodriguez flew him to the set of El Mariachi, I dont know. All I know is I remember putting him in the ****ing Mondrian Hotel, him and his father. I got a limousine to ****ing drive his ass to my premiere for no other reason than I liked talking movies with this guy and I wanted to know what he thought.
Now if I recall it wasnt like he said, I love this movie, youre an amazing filmmaker, I dont know if those words were said, but he wrote a whole rave review for Money Talks. I dont remember if I brought him out for Rush Hour, but I know one thing, and you can do the research and look in the archives the review on Rush Hour was even ****ing better. The biggest blow job you ever read in your ****ing life. Because he really liked it. I was not the hack I am today.
Then I did Family Man. I dont remember if it was good or bad, but I wasnt angry with him because I was still his friend. I would never have gotten into it. Then one day I got a call and they wanted to hire me for Superman. I call up Harry and say, Guess what, Im doing Superman! And he was like [gasps]. I was like, Why are you so shocked? I dont know, I just duhduhduh, duhduhduh.
