Fast X Director Recalls Last Minute Script Rewrite Amid Production Chaos
Fast X director Louis Leterrier recalls his last-minute script rewrite after joining the movie following Justin Lin’s sudden departure. The tenth installment in the popular Fast & Furious franchise, Fast X is set to see Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto return with his talented crew of drivers to take on a new villain played by Jason Momoa. Although Lin, a longtime franchise director, was originally attached to helm the project, he departed the sequel only days into production, reportedly due to disagreements with Diesel, who serves as a producer.
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With the Fast X release date approaching, Leterrier sat down for an interview with Esquire Middle East, explaining just how chaotic a situation he walked into upon agreeing to replace Lin. The director reveals that he was tasked with rewriting the third act only days before he stepped onto the set, which subsequently led to rewrites of act one and act two as well. Check out Leterrier’s full comment below:
“I read the script four times on the plane, and I said I had some ideas, and they said, ‘Great, because the whole third act is changing. Can you rewrite it tonight?’ I was literally on no sleep. I’d been on no sleep for days. Obviously, this was not going to be set in stone. But I was like, ‘Okay, yeah, I’ve got some ideas,’ and started writing. And obviously, since the third act was changing, I needed to change the first act. And when you rewrite the third act, and the first act, the second act has to go. So basically I had to on the fly rebuild the airplane.”
Related: Fast X Has To Get Rid Of 1 Character For Jason Momoa’s Villain To Work
Why Fast X’s Director Change Might Be For The Best
Lin has been a key player in making the Fast & Furious franchise as successful as it has become, directing movies, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 9. F9: The Fast Saga was something of a disappointment, however, featuring an outlandish storyline and an increasing reliance on visual effects. While it’s unclear what Lin’s plan was for Fast X, the long-running franchise may benefit from a fresh voice to keep things from starting to feel stale.
As he has shown with his previous car-centric movie, The Transporter, Leterrier has a penchant for action that feels a little more grounded. The director has already affirmed that Fast X will feature more practical action scenes than previous installments, a welcome addition to a franchise that, in its most recent entry, launched a car into outer space. While the Fast X trailer has already shown that the movie will still have some ridiculous set pieces, including one in which Dom uses his muscle car to smash two helicopters together, there already appears to be a slightly different flavor to the action.
The proof, of course, will be in the pudding regarding whether Leterrier can actually pull off a satisfying Fast & Furious adventure. Lin’s sudden departure and Leterrier having such a limited window in which to step into his shoes and rewrite the entire movie could result in Fast X feeling disorganized and ultimately unfinished. Thankfully, audiences don’t have a whole lot longer to wait in order to find out, with Fast X’s release date now just about three months away.
More: Why The Fast & Furious Franchise Is Ending (& When It Will)
Source: Esquire Middle East
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