Director Justin Lin has opened up about a weather balloon action sequence cut from F9: The Fast Saga because it was too expensive to execute. The latest chapter in Universal's hit franchise sees Vin Diesel's Dom and his family forced to face the wrath of Charlize Theron's Cipher following the events of The Fate of The Furious. Things get complicated for the group, however, when it's revealed that Dom's estranged brother, master thief and assassin Jakob, is working with the cyberterrorist to bring Dom and his team down.
While the franchise has been full of fans service across its eight mainline installments and spin-off Hobbs & Shaw, the latest installment may hold the most for those who have raced to theaters for the past 20 years. From the return of Lin to the directing chair and helping write the film to Sung Kang's Han, Lucas Black's Sean Boswell, Bow Wow's Twinkie, and Jason Tobin's Earl all coming back, the stakes are anything but small for the next chapter. With that in mind, though, it seems even the Fast and the Furious franchise can only do so much in a single film.
In an interview with Slash Film, Lin opened up about returning to the franchise for the first time in nearly a decade. The director also revealed a set piece that he fought tooth and nail to include but was ultimately cut from the film: he wanted a weather balloon to take Sean's Pontiac Fiero into the outer atmosphere. Lin said:
“I was on this train ride to Edinburgh for a scout and I had a plan to take a Fiero to the outer atmosphere on a weather balloon. And the cost kept coming in, I kept fighting it. And if I’m looking back now, that is the one that is the one setup that I would have personally paid for the weather balloon. I just always love starting any crazy idea with truly doing it ourselves. Ultimately we had a lot of reference to work off of, but if you’re asking me personally, that that was one that I was adamant [about]. But the budget — I think even on big budgets — I felt like we found the limit of what we can do.”
To hear that the Fast franchise had to put the brakes on an action sequence is really quite a shocker, especially given the new film's budget estimated to be over $200 million. Plus, for those excited to see the return of Sean after a brief reprisal in Furious 7, learning he won't be getting as ludicrous a solo set-piece as heading to space in a weather balloon may come as a disappointment. But with the film still confirmed to be taking Ludacris and Tyrese Gibson's Tej and Rome to space at the very least, there are still new heights being reached by the creative team.
Not to mention, the sheer fact that Sean and the rest of the Tokyo Drift crew who have been absent for a few films will be returning for F9: The Fast Saga should still be a treat for longtime fans of the series. With two more films currently in the works to conclude the mainline franchise, the door is still potentially open for Sean to get the chance to head to space or a similarly close height. For the time being, American audiences only have a week left until the film finally hits theaters.
Source: Slash Film
from ScreenRant - Feed https://ift.tt/2TuQ7Qi
No comments: