By day Brett Ratner is a Hollywood producer, director and photographer. At night, he moonlights as the publisher of Rat Press. "It's a one-man operation," he said. "I do everything, basically," including editing books in his bedroom.

Rat Press had its beginnings nearly a decade ago when Ratner published Naked Pictures of My Ex-Girlfriends by Mark Helfrich. Several years later he wrote a book of his own, Hillhaven Lodge: The Photo Booth Pictures, with powerHouse Books. Ratner has now re-launched Rat Press, creating a new logo and signing on with Perseus Distribution. The company aims to publish works "from the most prolific individuals in film" that consumers "never have the opportunity to see in a theater" and in a variety of formats. Titles will include biographies, interviews, novels, scripts, photos and artwork.

"Brett is a passionate book lover, and he's done a wonderful job of bringing the film and book industries together," said Tyson Cornell, director of marketing and publicity at Book Soup in Los Angeles. Ratner, whose big-screen work includes directing X-Men: The Last Stand and the film adaptation of Thomas Harris' novel Red Dragon, acknowledges that "there is definitely a synergy" between the book and movie markets and envisions a wide readership for the books. "They call movies that reach many audiences four quadrant movies," he said. "These are four quadrant books" that will appeal to film students, movie buffs, pop culture enthusiasts and those who like reading historical books and biographies.

Appropriately Rat Press re-launched earlier this year with four books, two of which were inspired by his own book collection: Conversations with Marlon Brando by Lawrence Grobel (which has some new material) and Jim: The Author's Self-Centered Memoir on the Great Jim Brown by James Toback. Both were originally published in the 1970s and had since gone out of print. "They're books that are in my library, which was part of my film education," said Ratner. "The content is fantastic. If I didn't have a publishing company, I would have made photocopies and mailed them to all my friends."

Those titles, along with a second work by Grobel, Conversations with Robert Evans, are part of a series with a similar design and layout. They're paperback originals with French flaps and embossed titles and retail for $20-$25. The print run is limited to 3,000 copies each. "I'm a commercial guy, meaning I like stuff that is accessible to the mainstream," said Ratner. "But this is something I wanted to do as a high end, collectible piece of business."

The most recent--and priciest--Rat Press publication is Scott Caan Photographs Vol. 1. An actor and director, Caan took up photography six years ago around the time his father, James Caan, gave him a camera that he had received from Francis Ford Coppola in the '70s. Caan said he trusted Ratner with his photos: "We share similar taste in art. When he expressed interest in the book, I knew that our ideas would be similar and that the book would remain honest to the original concept." The striking and varied images in the $60 oversize book range from black-and-white shots of a kitchen worker at a Pittsburgh diner and famous faces like Brad Pitt and Don Cheadle (Caan's Ocean's Eleven co-stars) to more provocative photos in a section titled "Ladies in Colour."

The books are proving to be a draw on the West Coast, where fans turned out for a launch party at Book Soup on April 28. Tonight Ratner will be at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, Calif., along with Caan, Lawrence Grobel and James Toback. Other upcoming Rat Press events are taking place at the ArcLight Hollywood Cinema gift shop on July 18 and at two Borders stores: New York City's Time Warner Center on July 30 and the Hollywood location on September 17. 

Next year's Rat Press list will include a reprint of Jerry Lewis's The Total Film-Maker and a first novel for which he also owns the film rights. It seems there are more late nights ahead for Ratner, and that's fine with him. Publishing books "is fun and rewarding," he said. "It's like making a film or taking a picture. It feels like I've accomplished something when I finish it. There's nothing more exciting than opening that first box of books when they're done."--Shannon McKenna Schmidt