Universal Pictures' racing-themed film "Fast & Furious 10" just started last week and is scheduled for release in North America on May 19, 2023.
On April 27, we got a surprising news: director Lin Yibin suddenly announced that he would quit directing the film.
You know, Asian director Lin Yibin can be regarded as the "soul" director of the "Fast and Furious" series of movies.
He directed the series's five titles, Fast & Furious 3: Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious 4, Fast & Furious 5, Fast & Furious 6 and Fast & Furious 9, making him the best person to grasp the essence of the series.
As early as 2018, Van Diesel, as the producer and protagonist of the film, confirmed to the media that Lin Yibin would direct "Fast and Furious 9" and "Fast and Furious 10" consecutively.
Van Diesel once highly affirmed Lin Yibin's film directing ability on social media, calling him the "ancestor" of the quick-fire series and the "architect" of the series.
However, shortly after the start of filming of "Fast and Furious 10", the director suddenly changed people, which is unpredictable. It is reported that neither Universal Nord Norselm nor Van Diesel has responded to the matter.
In May 2021, "Fast and Furious 9", which was postponed for three times due to the epidemic, chose to be released for the first time in China, setting a precedent for Hollywood blockbusters to take the lead in China.
Due to the collective absence of the two tough guy protagonists of "Boulder" Dawn Johnson and "Guo Dasen" Jason Statham, the film seems to be missing something.
After the film was released in China, the box office performance was very strong, reaching 317 million on the first day of release, and exceeding 900 million in 5 days of release.
However, in stark contrast to the strong box office performance, "Fast and Furious 9" suffered the fastest word-of-mouth collapse in the 20 years since its release, and the Douban score of 5.5 points has fallen below the passing line.
The dazzling but unintelligible hot scenes, the fans who are caught in the aesthetic fatigue of watching movies, and the main creative lineup that sells Chinese feelings, give people the feeling that the sequel of the rapid excitement is getting more and more outrageous.
On April 27, Lin Yibin, the director who originally directed "Fast and Furious 10", suddenly released a statement.
He said in a statement: "I have made the difficult decision to no longer be the director of Fast and Furious 10 and continue to participate as a producer".
It is worth noting that Lin Yibin released this statement through the official social media account of "Fast and Furious", and he still uses the special font of "Rapid", and the name of the payment is also the same.
Some foreign media disclosed that director Lin Yibin proposed to Universal Pictures in advance to withdraw, so after this statement was issued, the producer did not panic and take sudden countermeasures.
It's quite possible that Universal and Van Diesel are already looking for alternative directors.
In fact, the five "Fast and Furious" movies directed by Lin Yibin are good in terms of scene control and plot advancement, which is remarkable.
In particular, he has worked with Van Diesel many times and has become very familiar with each other. When "Fast and Furious 9" was preparing to shoot that year, Van Diesel called Lin Yibin to invite him out of the mountain.
Not knowing what the reason was, Lin Yibin decided to part ways with the latest work in the "Fast and Furious" series.
The sudden resignation of "Fast and Furious 10" director Lin Yibin still had an impact on the film's shooting, and it is said that the resulting crew shutdown could cause Universal Pictures to lose $1 million a day.
In fact, the original director Lin Yibin announced his withdrawal with "creative differences", which seems far-fetched, and there must be deep reasons.
When Lin Yibin directed the "Fast and Furious" series of movies, he still had his own set, and the film series also carried his consistent style.
On April 23, Van Diesel posted a short video on the set on INS, and from their conversation, we saw that Lin Yibin looked a little unnatural and in a bad mental state.
Although there was nothing abnormal about the conversation between them, Lin Yibin kept glancing at Van Diesel with his eyes when he spoke, and his eyes were repeatedly filled with a sense of fear.
Could it be that there is something else hidden? Just like mentioned in the video, Lin Yibin, if you are "kidnapped", you will blink.
"Fast and Furious 10" still has some points of interest, at least in the main cast has been adjusted, attracting heavyweight A-list actors to join, "Captain Marvel" Brie Larson is one of them.
The "Captain Marvel" in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with its own traffic and highlights, will attract a large number of fans to pay attention to the new movie.
At the same time, Brie Larson openly expressed her desire to star in "Fast and Furious 10" in an interview with the media.
Van Diesel recently announced on his social media account that the racing family will welcome a new member, Brie Larson.
As a popular superhero character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the popularity of "Captain Marvel" is very high.
Now, she will cross over to the racing movie "Fast and Furious 10". In a picture distributed by Van Diesel, Brie Larson leans on his shoulder, both smiling, and it seems that their cooperation is very pleasant.
Brie Larson herself said that she really liked the film, the series was so much fun, they were fun, and it made her appreciate cars.
In addition to the new Brie Larson, a little earlier Universal Pictures officially announced the joining of "Aquaman" Jason Momma to "Fast and Furious 10".
Jason Momma played "Horse King" in Game of Thrones and "Aquaman" in Batman v Superman.
Many Chinese film fans feel that his temperament is quite similar to Xu Jinjiang, and he has a sense of déjà vu of Chris Hayworth when he speaks.
In the existing starring lineup, "Aquaman" Jason Momma is another big-name actor who has just joined.
On the official social media accounts of Fast & Furious, it reads "Welcome Jason Momma, the Rush family will grow stronger and stronger."
It is reported that Jason Momma will play the role of villain, and Zhao Xina, who plays the villain in the upper part, does not know whether she will appear in this film to partner him.
However, some netizens feel that Jason Momma, who has no star appearance, has made mistakes in the selection of films, and feels that he should not join the "Fast and Furious 10" that has become a rotten IP.
In any case, the rapid shock series can inject fresh blood into the starring lineup, indicating that the filmmakers are still sincere.
In addition, Charles Theron, who plays the female villain BOSS "Saifu", recently exposed several of the first set photos on social media, and we found that her hairstyle has changed again.
It is worth mentioning that she is shown in "Fast and Furious 8" with the image of long hair in a ponytail, a typical "snake and scorpion beauty".
In Fast & Furious 9, Charles Theron shines in a skilful golden short.
In the latest sequel, she makes a scene with a shoulder-length hot roll, and it seems that Charles Theron and Jason Momma will form a villain pairing.
As the soul protagonist of the Fast and Furious series, Van Diesel has been persevering, from the protagonist of the film to the producer behind the scenes, becoming the actual controller of the entire series.
Since losing Paul Walker's partner, the "Fast and Furious" series has slowly declined, whether it is the theme of the storyline or the control of the scene, it is far from the expectations of fans.
In particular, it is separated from the original "racing" main line, with the theme of "family", mixed with too many unrealistic science fiction elements and repeated flying car explosion scenes, so that the audience has a movie fatigue.
More and more detached from the original story line, so that the audience feel more and more fake, more and more uninteresting, which also caused the reputation to decline one after another, and even some people gave the definition of a bad film.
Fast & Furious is getting worse and worse, which has a lot to do with Van Diesel's involvement as a producer.
When Dawn Johnson and Jason Statham both quit the filming of "Fast and Furious 9" and teamed up to star in "Fast and Furious: Special Ops", the media revealed the contradiction between Van Diesel and Dawn Johnson.
In fact, Sheriff Hobbs, played by Dawn Johnson in the "Fast and Furious" series, is a very interesting character with strong domineering and humorous humor.
However, in the end, the reason why he chose to part ways with the "Fast and Furious" movie is confusing.
At the end of 2021, according to foreign media, Dawn Johnson clearly refused van Diesel's previous public invitation to return to "Fast and Furious 10" in an interview with the US media.
At the same time, he added that he was uncomfortable with Van Diesel's forced play of the family and brother cards.
In fact, under the hard work of Van Diesel, "Fast and Furious 9" still has a lot to watch.
The first is the return of director Lin Yibin, followed by the return of "Mia" played by Jordana Brewster, who plays the role of Don Boss's sister in the movie.
Again, it successfully resurrected the role of "Han" brother played by Jiang Sung-ho, which made fans both surprised and moved.
As a result, many fans have issued calls to revive the role of "Giselle" played by Gail Gadot.
But Gail Gadot said in an interview that year: "Fast and Furious is not on my list at the moment."
Because the first five "Fast and Furious" films directed by Lin Yibin are relatively successful, the film style and route more or less have lin's characteristics.
At the very least, in many dangerous racing action scenes, Lin Yibin, in order to strive for realism, adopted the practice of live-action shooting and refused any special effects.
He can spend months setting up scenes and spend 4 days shooting a set of difficult shots, which is not something that the average director can do.
Now, Lin Yibin suddenly announced that he would no longer direct "Fast and Furious 10", and the US media was also trying to find the reason for his withdrawal.
In order to maintain the unity of the film's style, Universal Pictures will most likely find a director who has directed the "Fast and Furious" series and is familiar with this subject to take over as Lin Yibin, but so far there has been no news of an alternative director.
Whether Wen Ziren, a first-line director who previously directed "Fast and Furious 7", can take over "Fast and Furious 10" again, we don't know. Because "Fast and Furious 7" is a peak in the entire series, both in terms of action scenes and audience reputation, which has the credit of Wen Ziren, of course, the most important thing is that the tribute and nostalgia for the deceased Paul Walker has infected countless people.
At this time, Wen Ziren is busy with the post-production of "Aquaman 2", and whether there is a schedule depends on his own wishes.
As the director of the first film of Fast and Furious, Rob Cohen could be a big candidate.
However, due to his experience of not directing films since 2018, the overall control of the film may be lacking and unfamiliar.
For his part, Rob Cohen himself is very eager to direct the final chapter of the series, to complete a cycle from beginning to end.
But the Fast and Furious series went on like this, and we didn't know, under Van Diesel's control, we didn't know if Rob Cohen could wait for the final chapter.
Finally, there's F. Gary Gray, a black director who directed Fast and Furious 8.
Since F. Gary Gray is currently working on an original Netflix movie starring Kevin Hart, "Lyft", I am afraid that he does not have a schedule to take over "Fast Passion 10".
As we all know, Van Diesel is the producer of the "Fast and Furious" series of films, and he is also the ultimate master of the series of films, from the revision of the script, the addition of roles and scenes, etc., he has the right to speak.
Therefore, in terms of directing the shooting, van Diesel may also be consulted.
Can we guess whether Van Diesel was too involved in the production of the film, disrupting the director's normal creative decision-making, resulting in dissatisfaction and contradictions between the two sides.
In terms of Dwayne Johnson's current withdrawal from "Fast and Furious 9" and rejection of "Fast and Furious 10", it may be related to Van Diesel's absolute control and the moral kidnapping that is difficult to adapt.
From the audience's point of view, under the creative decision of Van Diesel, "Fast and Furious" is extremely ambitious and explosive on the scene, and the practice of going to heaven and even going to space is dazzling and at the same time makes people feel that they have departed from the original intention of the film and lost the original elements.
Some people have asked whether "Fast and Furious 11" is going to rush out of the galaxy, of course, this is just a mockery, but it also reflects the fans' concern that "Fast and Furious" is indeed getting worse and worse.
Nowadays, director Lin Yibin has chosen to quit, and Universal Pictures hopes that experienced big directors will take charge of the shooting of this commercial blockbuster, so the vacancy of the director's position has caused the film to stop shooting, and it is not a long-term solution.
With the resignation of the "originator" director, it is still unknown how far van Diesel's "Fast and Furious" film can go.
As a die-hard fan of quick thrills, I hope that this movie, which carries 22 years of youth memories and racing enlightenment, will not end badly.
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