“You’re ready to shoot the thing, you don’t have a finished third act and your director just quit. Rodriguez, who’s played Letty for 23 years, described the tumult, which forced her and Theron to film a bruising fight sequence without a director. “Let’s do a real race in the middle of the movie, put Dom behind the wheel and have the bad guy be a driver.”Īn important first step was connecting with actors left adrift by Lin’s departure even as production rolled on. “I wanted to go back to cars - that was actually very important to me,” said Leterrier. Lin’s fingerprints are still all over “Fast X”: A retconned revisitation of Lin’s “ Fast Five” vault sequence serves as an opening showcase in “Fast X,” blending new and original footage.īut many of the ideas Leterrier pitched to get the job made their way into the final version of the film, informed by his fanatic knowledge of the characters, themes and motifs that have endeared the franchise to a loyal global audience. Movies ‘The Little Mermaid’ left Halle Bailey ‘tired’ and ‘isolated.’ And she thanked God for itīailey opens up about facing racist trolls, protective fans, grueling stunts and more to take on the role a million little girls dreamed of. “And then I was in the midst of it, into a tunnel of work.” Already friends with Lin through the commercials production collective they share with fellow filmmakers such as the Russo brothers, he spoke briefly with his “Fast” predecessor by phone. Windon, production designer Jan Roelfs, editors Dylan Highsmith and Kelly Matsumoto, costume designer Sanja Milkovic Hays and composer Brian Tyler. Stepping into the director’s chair, he worked on rewrites on the plane ride to London and hit the ground running, inheriting the prep and crew Lin had in place, including series cinematographer Stephen F. “Then Jason got the job and became Shaw, and I was very jealous.” The ‘Fast and Furious’ set pieces are always amazing because they have three acts within it - there’s a beginning, a middle and end, and you never lose the characters within the action,” he says. “They’re the ne plus ultra of action filmmaking. Characters have suffered amnesia, returned from the dead and unearthed previously unknown siblings over the course of 10 feature films, including the Statham-Dwayne Johnson spin-off “ Hobbs & Shaw.”īut for all its onscreen antics and soap-opera twists, the “Fast” films have an undeniable pull with audiences, says Letterier, who has been geeking out over their action sequences for years and remembers the excitement he and Statham felt when they went to see the 2001 original in France while filming “The Transporter.” Cars have fought planes, helicopters and submarines, skydived and, yes, even launched into space. street racers, but it has swelled to increasingly bombastic heights. The franchise may have begun humbly as the brooding bromantic saga of DVD player-stealing L.A. Universal Pictures President Peter Cramer He really was the perfect guy to step in at a moment’s notice and take over. I really was a fan,” he told The Times ahead of the film’s May 19 premiere. It was his dream to direct a “Fast” movie, his wife reminded him as he sped through a series of high-level interviews before franchise star and producer Vin Diesel officially awarded him the job. He’d been up for directing earlier installments. The mad dash for a new director happened so fast that the opportunity was overwhelming, said Leterrier.īut he loved the “Fast” films. The blockbuster was a week into production and locked into a release date when the sudden exit of longtime helmer Justin Lin, who had directed five of the previous nine films including 2021’s “ F9,” threw Universal’s $6-billion “ Fast and Furious” franchise into chaos. Within days, the French filmmaker was on a last-minute flight to London, buckling up for the craziest ride of his career: taking over as director on Universal’s mega summer sequel “ Fast X.” Leterrier didn’t bother sleeping, reading it over twice. It was Peter Cramer, the studio’s president, and he was calling with a script and an urgent request for a meeting at 6 a.m. Had the head of Universal accidentally butt-dialed him? One year ago, Louis Leterrier was in Los Angeles finishing a project when he received the late-night call that would change his fate.
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