The hyper-popular, but never not entertaining Fast & Furious movies are the subject of a new, and completely unauthorised, book looking into the story behind them.
Welcome to the Family sounds like it might be an interesting read for observers of blockbuster cinema. The book has reportedly revealed the reason why Justin Lin, one of the foundational building blocks of the franchise success since it changed course after the third instalment, quit Fast X just two weeks into shooting.
Indiewire has reported that it is down to something we could have probably all guessed.
The press release called it an ‘amicable’ exit over ‘creative differences’. The truth was a high-profile bust up over the ending of the movie and rising tensions with Vin Diesel.
“Lin had hit his breaking point over the steadily increasing creative tensions with [Vin] Diesel, as well as difficulties with the star’s sister/producer, Samantha Vincent, who often acted as Diesel’s emissary.
This has a distinct whiff of The Rock / DC about it. Alpha-type talent, family deeply embedded in production staff. Coming (back) into a franchise late and thinking it’s all about them.
The report goes on:
A key source of discord centered around the script and its ending. While a cliffhanger was always part of the Fast X plan, several drafts of the screenplay also hinged on a jaw-dropping twist in which Dante (Jason Momoa) is revealed to be the true father of Little Brian.”
Diesel didn’t like that twist, and didn’t like the cliffhanger ending as it was written:
“Some members of the film’s team felt that the late-game turn was the perfect, if deeply dark, way for Dom to reckon with the concept he held most dear: family. The proud patriarch of the Fast clan would have to put his life on the line for a child who wasn’t biologically his own – who was in fact the offspring of his most feared nemesis. Others, including Diesel, felt differently.
Fast X was held to have underperformed expectations. So did the studio learn any lessons here? What do you think?
Universal was said to be extremely hands-on during the entire process, and reportedly also not keen on Lin’s vision for the final action set-piece, an especially over-the-top sequence that involved Dante using a giant excavator-like machine to wreak havoc…After a heated closed-door meeting on Saturday, April 23, Lin reached his limit, threw up his hands, and quit.”
There’s always an interesting story. Always. Now we can speculate as to why this last instalment is taking forever to come out.
