Caffeinated Clint
I haven’t seen “Fast Five” (aka “Fast and Furious 5” downunder and in select other territories) but I hear it’s a lot of fun. And I don’t doubt it – I’ve enjoyed near all of the films in the series (bar “2 Fast 2 Furious” which I thought more resembled a video game than a film – the effects in it were atrocious!), especially the last sequel, the one that reunited the original cast – including Vin Diesel, who swore he’d never return to the series. They’re big, dumb, loud, fun actioners that do for today’s bloke what the ol’ Charles Bronson and Steve McQueen did for the fellas in the ’70s and ’80s.
After the not-at-all confounding success of “Fast Five” overseas, Universal are putting pedal to the metal on a sixth film. As previously reported, Chris Morgan, who wrote the last three films in the series, has again been charged with the task of doodling down a stratagem.
This time though, Morgan plans to shake things up.
Apparently there’s a teaser at the end of “Fast Five” that sets up the new sequel – – but I haven’t seen the film, as I said, so I can’t really comment on it. In this case, we’re throwing to Nikki Fenke who has the low-down on the sixth film’s plot.
So what Fast Five sets up nicely is a Fast Six whose plot revolves around a major robbery. And Universal’s intent is to transform the street-racing franchise into a series of heist films.
The studio honchos agreed that the next installments had to be less about street racing and about more inclusive subject matter. “We’ve heard so many people say, ‘I’ve never seen one, and I’ve never wanted to see one,’ about the Fast franchise,” Fogelson said. “So if these movies were still about street racing, there was probably a ceiling on how many people would buy tickets. We wanted to see if we could raise it out of about racing and make car driving ability just a part of the movie, like those great chases in The French Connection, The Bourne Identity, The Italian Job,” Fogelson explained. With Dodge as a partner, “Our strategy behind one of the biggest bets we’ve ever made is that the business has gone so far towards CG action every weekend, that we really believe creating a movie with real action and real cars will be amazing stuff to people excited by seeing something real.”
Fogelson called Fast Five “the transitional movie.” The franchise has moved from Mexico and then Tokyo and now to Rio De Janeiro, where all the Universal biggies traveled last week for the film’s premiere. I don’t think it’s giving away anything to reveal that the new pic is not primarily about racing anymore. But if you think so, then DON’T READ ON! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock) plays a federal agent assigned to track down Paul Walker and the rest of the Fast team who sprung Vin Diesel from police custody. Now all the Fast guys are on the run, and will commit a crime, and Rock is right behind them. This movie again puts together most of the original cast plus some cast members from all of the prior four films. Fogelson says Johnson came to Universal seeking to become part of the franchise, and not only is he pivotal to the plot in Fast Five pitted against Vin, but he also wants to appear in and be integral to the action in Fast Six.
“This franchise has undergone more interesting twists and turns than any franchise I know of,” Fogelson said. “The first one was exciting because of the multi-cultural and multi-ethnic makeup of the cast, which drew over-indexes among Hispanics and Asians and African-American audiences. Then Vin went off doing other stuff, but the sequel still managed a $50M opening and became a mega-hit. Then Tokyo Drift was done for a lower price and it did far better internationally and less domestic. Most studios would have considered the franchise finished.
“But we went and got Vin to do a cameo. That last scene when audiences saw him was explosive. All of us sitting in that test screening in Chatsworth realized the franchise wasn’t over. We said, ‘Let’s get started.’ And so bringing in the original cast was a mega-win. So we went off to get the original players and the fourth pic opened to a humongous $71M. That was the first to open the first weekend in April. Before then, Fast has always always been a summer film. But now we had the highest opening weekend ever in April.”
Universal is trying to manage expectations for Fast Five and its domestic opening on April 29, so it’s low-balling hopes for at least a $50M to $60M opening. It’s done way better than expected overseas, where it’s opened in a few territories already, but sequels do best internationally. As for Fast Five domestically, “Based on screenings, this is the highest-testing movie in the franchise so far,” Fogelson noted. “But we’ve absolutely left perfect room for where we want to go with this franchise. I don’t want to give away too much, but there are a lot of surprises at the end of Fast Five involving one of the biggest characters of the previous movies which will set up the franchise now as a series of heist action films.”
And…. I’m thinking I might go see the movie tonight. Will tweet my thoughts on it later.
