Fast X's production cycle was just as fast and furious as the film. Director Louis Leterrier said he only had four days to prepare for the job after first receiving a call about directing the project, and that timeframe involved some heavy lifting.
Fast X is the tenth film in The Fast and the Furious franchise and its penultimate movie. After Justin Lin stepped down as director of Fast X, Universal's most successful franchise was without one of its key components. Universal reached out to Leterrier to rectify this situation, who immediately agreed to sign on to the franchise (it had been his professional dream for years).
In a new interview with Esquire Middle East, Leterrier recalled the highly unconventional hiring process for Fast X. "It was quite fast," Leterrier said. "I mean, literally, they had shot a day, and were on hold. I got a call from the heads of Universal saying, ‘can you call us back?’ I thought it was a butt dial. I was like, I’ll call you tomorrow. He was like, ‘no, call us now, this is not a mistake. Can you read a script by 5:00 am?’"
Leterrier recalls reading the script and finding it incredible. However, the studio requested that Leterrier do some rewriting for the entire third act to move the Fast and the Furious franchise forward without Lin. The deadline given for the rewrite was just one night. Though Leterrier was determined to rewrite the third act to the studio's specifications, he was running on no sleep.
However, Leterrier was determined to make it happen. Leterrier recalls, "But I was like, ‘okay, yeah, I’ve got some ideas,’ and started writing." It seems the studio was right to mark Leterrier as Lin's replacement because he went further than that. With the third act now being reworked, Leterrier decided the first and second acts also needed some heavy retooling. "So basically I had to on the fly rebuild the airplane," Leterrier said.
Fast X is set to be a star-studded affair - even West Side Story legend Rita Moreno is getting in on the action. Leterrier's comments also indicate that he's a big fan of the franchise and that he understands that what fans want to see out of Fast and Furious is over-the-top action (he mentions a Roman setpiece that could be the highlight of the film). Unfortunately, Rome wasn't built in a day, but hopefully, rewriting the film on such short notice does not impact the quality of the film.
Fast X is scheduled to be released in theaters on May 19, 2023.
Source: Esquire Middle East