After taking some time to decide where he would sign his new producing deal, Jerry Bruckheimer says a big part of his Paramount choice boiled down to relationships he had established through the years.

“I’ve had a long relationship with Brad Grey going back to when he was a manager and had always worked well with him,” Bruckheimer tells Variety. “We also had a handful of projects in development there like ‘Top Gun 2’and a new ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ as well as selling a pitch called ‘Shake’ so at the end of the day it just made sense.”

UPDATE: Brett Ratner had also been attached going back to when this film first came into development at Paramount but that has also been made official too.

Bruckheimer said a new draft for “Beverly Hills Cop” just came in (everyone is happy with it, apparently), and while “Top Gun 2” is still in development, another reason for picking Paramount was how happy he was with working with Skydance and its CEO David Ellison.

“David is a very smart guy and it’s been a pleasure working with him so far,” he said.

Bruckheimer insists he is very much involved with the next “Pirates of the Caribbean” pic at Disney, adding that the script is being worked out.

In terms of why he left the Mouse House, the prolific producer says he wanted to make more than just family-friendly projects like “Pirates” and “National Treasure.”

“There really isn’t a Touchstone anymore and that was a big reason we left,” he said. “We want to make all sorts of films like ‘Con Air’ and ‘Black Hawk Down’ and we can’t do those at Disney anymore.”

Bruckheimer said he plans to stay in his Santa Monica office with no cuts expected for his staff.

There’s also the question of Paramount’s clutch of producers like Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Michael Bay and J.J. Abrams that develop testosterone-driven movies and whether Bruckheimer will be challenging to add to that mix.

But Bruckheimer doesn’t foresee a problem.

“The good thing is Paramount is looking to make more movies and us coming on board will only help in making that happen,” Bruckheimer said.

As of right now, Paramount hasn’t guaranteed Bruckheimer any schedule slots. He sees it happening on a picture-by-picture basis.

With the search finally over and his deal not officially starting until April, will the 70 year-old producer take some time off?

“No chance,” he laughs. “We have too much already going on and still have to figure out to move forward with future projects.”

“Besides, if I take more than three days off I tend to go crazy.”