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‘80s that we all enjoyed going to see in movies,
and we thought was a real badass at that
time. The irony is Kurt Russell was chosen not
necessarily to service Fast 7, but was chosen to
service Fast 8. And the design was to have him
introduced here, as we start going into a new
shadowlike world of higher stakes, one that
was designed to play out and pay off in the
eighth film.
The way that Kurt Russell plays this role, he
is the coolest guy in the room...
The chemistry with Kurt was so gratifying,
and he’s so much fun to work with. Right from
the beginning, you could tell that this was
something he was excited about, that there was
a pride that he had about being a part of the
Fast saga, and there was something precious
to him about creating a character that would
have such a deep relationship with DomToretto.
We spent many a night and weekend talking
about character, talking about the direction, and
refining and retuning. I love having somebody
that’s willing to look for that little extra nuance,
look for that little extra magic.
We’ve been to some pretty
incredible places with you through
this franchise, but Abu Dhabi is
pretty special.
Very special. The audienc
now has grown to
somewhat expect
these new locations,
and they enjoy
AUGUST 2015 JB Hi-Fi
visit Q&A DVD&BD
036
the next villain in a way that automatically
affected you emotionally. For you to feel like a
villain is being introduced at the same time he is
taking away someone that you’ve already grown
comfortable with creates an emotional response
to the villain that you can’t anticipate, and you
can’t make up. And that’s at the forefront of our
story here. You have to see the fourth chapter to
really appreciate where we are when we step
into the first new chapter of the unknown road.
Why do you think Jason Statham was right
for the role of the villain?
Jason is one of those actors who keep it
cool and consistent. He’s a wonderful talent
to watch, period. We needed a character that
represented the location we’d just lived in for
two hours, which is London. Jason Statham did
that. We wanted to get a formidable character,
but we wanted the character’s formidability to
be different than Hobbs’s formidability that we
employed in 5. And then last, but not least, I
went on Facebook, and I asked the fans, “Who
would you like to see me work with? Who would
you like to see me incorporate, if I could?” And
the top name was Jason Statham, more than
the next three combined.
Dom's going to go after this guy.Through
Hobbs, he comes in contact with someone,
played by Kurt Russell, who makes him an
offer he can’t refuse...
That’s right. There is a device called God’s
Eye, which as Dom says in the movie, is a
glorified tracking device, but on steroids. Kurt
Russell was one of those guys in the ‘70s and
travelling with the characters that they know so
well. They still wanted to come home in 7, but
as a characteristic of the saga over the years,
fans have enjoyed travelling with the characters.
When we travel and visit these other cultures
and countries, it only strengthens that idea that
we are all citizens of the world.
As a producer, presumably you had a hand in
picking the director.Why JamesWan?
James Wan is somebody who has conquered
a genre; he has proven you can take a horror
genre and be extremely successful with it. In
my mind, he’s become the new face of horror
and what’s exciting about him is that he wants
to do more. He was very excited about coming
into this and trying to do something that’s
memorable in all the right ways. There is a
sensibility to his shooting style that I think was
imperative for this kind of re-set chapter. I call it
re-set chapter because Chapter 7 incorporates
so many things that happened before but, as
you know, with the Han character [Sung Kang]
finally sinking off to Tokyo Drift at the end
of Chapter 6. In some ways, this is the new
frontier. So for all of us involved, we’re finally
at a place where we don’t know what’s going
to happen in the future. It is the unknown road
ahead that is exciting, and I think that James
Wan has taken scenes and shot them differently,
with a certain kind of tension that he’s mastered
in his horror world.
Do you have an outline for future films?
I think what Fast & Furious has done as a
saga has proved that there is a new way to
approach sequels and sagas. The way that they
used to do it in the 1980s and 1990s was to
make a movie and if it was really successful,
they would use the brand and market it again
and again and expect diminishing returns. The
secret to counter that is to have a long view
of what your story looks like over multiple
pictures and, with Universal, I wouldn’t have
been interested in just doing 7 if they didn’t have
an idea or feel comfortable with what the new
trilogy would look like, of how 7, 8 and 9 would
t and how they would connect to one
other. One of the things that I’m
most proud about in the last three
films is how much each film speaks
to one another and how connected
they are.
THE ROAD AHEAD continued
Increasing the emotional
stakes is what will set
this saga apart from any
other movie