With a scene-stealing performance from Jason Momoa and car chases to rival even the most bizarre Fast & Furious moments, Fast X was a huge hit when it raced onto our screens earlier this year. Now as the movie prepares to make its at-home debut, we caught up with director Louis Leterrier about how he and Vin Diesel worked together to create the tenthquel.
In particular, Leterrier offered some clarity on what exactly the Dominic Toretto star meant by those extra movie comments. The director is working on Fast 11 at the moment, which we all thought was the final film in the two-decades-long franchise, and then Diesel confused us all.
When he was asked about his character’s future at the movie’s premiere in Rome, Diesel intriguingly said: "I can say this: going into making this movie, the studio had asked if this could be a two-parter, and after the studio saw this and when they saw part one, they said, 'Could we make Fast X the finale, a trilogy?'" It certainly seemed like confirmation, but since then we haven’t heard any more... Thankfully Leterrier has given 12DOVE some further clarity.
"The one thing about Vin is like when he’s on a press line, he will say anything to get out of that press line," Leterrier laughingly tells us. "And I’m kind of like him and go, 'Yeah, sure, we will go to the moon in the next one. Bye.' And then you never forget!"
The director continues: "Obviously the next one is coming, and then yeah, one movie at a time. I think the one thing that Hollywood keeps reminding us is that it's one step at a time, put one foot forward at a time. Let's count our blessings. We're very lucky this movie was well-received and well-loved, people went to see it in a movie theater and now they’re going to see it at home. It's one at a time.
"I mean maybe what he was saying is that there’s 25 years of filmmaking and storytelling, three acts, two hours and two movies, between the last one and this one, might not be enough to tell the story that is needed, and that’s what we’re figuring out these days."
Well, that’s not a no, but it does seem like we’ll need to wait a while longer for some more official news on this one. What is very clear though, is that Diesel and Leterrier have a very strong partnership, developed by pouring everything into the making of Fast X.
In the accompanying features of the upcoming DVD and Blu-ray release of the movie, Diesel shares that they used to spend hours after everyone left for the day refining details about every character.
"It’s very strong," Leterrier smiles, "It’s so strong that we talk to each other every day still now, the movie’s been out for a few months." Describing Diesel as a "perfectionist", the director describes the work they put in during the evenings after filming as invaluable. "Once he comes on set, then we go really fast because we've talked about everything, we know every end goal of every character."
Although, such an approach, Leterrier admits, did sometimes mean they didn’t speak so much about Dom. "We spent two and a half hours talking about every character but Dom Torretto so then at the end I'm like, 'We completely forgot to talk about Dom'," he laughs. "But then obviously he knows Dom perfectly so we only need half an hour."
What’s clear though is that Diesel’s love of the Fast family is hugely important for this franchise, and one of the reasons it’s kept going strong for more than 20 years. "It's much more than just a fantastic actor doing a fantastic job, coming on set, being active, and embodying this character. He really carries this $7 billion franchise on his already massive shoulders."
Leterrier adds, "Every actor that comes on board is in awe of his professionalism and his generosity, like he’ll come on set the days he’s not shooting, just to make sure that everybody’s happy. He’s there for us. Really, it’s rare – no, it’s not rare, it does not exist in Hollywood except for Vin. He’s the only person that does that."
Fast X is available to Download & Keep on August 21 and on 4K, Blu-ray & DVD on September 4.
