Universal PicturesDirector Justin Lin quit Fast X shortly after filming started, and a new book claims that the split was all Vin Diesel’s fault.
The Fast and Furious franchise has come a long way since the early days of stealing DVD players from trucks in the 2001 movie, and now sees Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his family of racers, assassins, and spies battle to save the world from nefarious forces a quarter mile at a time.
Fast X upped the stakes even higher as Dom faces off with Dante Reyes (Jason Momoa) who wants revenge for the death of his father, drug lord Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida), and the destruction of his empire at the end of 2011’s Fast Five. The film raked in $714 million worldwide against a $340 million budget.
But despite Fast X’s success, a dose of controversy raised eyebrows from fans when Lin up and left the project only a week into filming. Now, a new book about the long-running franchise opens the lid on what really happened for Lin to exit the franchise he’d been involved with since 2006. And it seems like the problem lies with Diesel.
Justin Lin and Vin Diesel clashed over the story in Fast X
Universal PicturesBarry Hertz’s ‘Welcome to the Family: The Explosive Story Behind Fast & Furious’ explains Vin Diesel did not approve of Justin Lin’s story ideas for Fast X. The book examines how the franchise has delivered some of the biggest blockbusters in history, but also looks at the troubled (and expensive) development of the 11th movie in the series.
“According to several high-level sources in the production, Lin had hit his breaking point over the steadily increasing creative tensions with Diesel, as well as difficulties with the star’s sister/producer, Samantha Vincent, who often acted as Diesel’s emissary,” an excerpt from IndieWire reads.
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In particular, he wasn’t impressed by Lin’s final twist that would’ve subverted the family theme that the franchise revolves around.
“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 is revealed to be the true father of Little Brian,” Hertz wrote.
Diesel seemingly did not like the idea that Little Brian wasn’t Dominic’s son, and the clash led to Lin’s departure. Although fans guessed that something wasn’t right with the director when Diesel uploaded a video online asking Lin how the first week of filming went, and the director unenthusiastically replied: “Feels like the beginning of an epic… uh, ending.”
The book also suggests that Universal wasn’t impressed by Lin’s idea for Final X’s climax chase scene, which would’ve involved a giant excavator destroying the team’s cars. Second-unit director and cinematographer Alexander Witt recalled the planned sequence in the book, saying it was “a little too Marvel.”
“It was really the ending that needed work – it’s difficult to describe, but this machine eats things… the bad guy goes down, gets into this machine, comes out and starts eating cars, and it’s like a Transformers movie. It was totally out of context with the movie, I thought,” he explained.
While we wait for news on Fast X: Part 2, take a look at how much the eye-watering Fast X budget cost, read about the highest-grossing movies ever made, and check out our list of the 102 best action movies of all time.