The columbine school school shooting that caused a sensation in the United States occurred on April 20, 1999.
At the time, director Rob Cohen, who made his name through the disaster film 100,000 Burning, was preparing for his next film.
The little-known screenwriter, Gary Scott Thompson, helped him come up with the story. A few years ago, James Cameron used the "Maritime Version of Romeo and Juliet" to persuade Fox Pictures to start filming "Titanic", which was a huge success, and Thompson came up with the "racing version of Romeo and Juliet" to try to impress Universal Pictures.
Originally, the Global High-Level program was adopted, but the Columbine High School campus shooting changed everything.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="128" > (1) a change from the creator</h1>
Because the protagonists are a group of underground drivers, even anti-heroic, they can't hide their subtle identities.
Considering the public opinion impact of the shooting, Universal was worried that singing the praises of such a group of people who did not work well and engaged in illegal racing every day would cause criticism, so Rob Cohen's project was suspended again.
Luckily Thompson didn't give up.
He modified the character setting of one of the main characters, which was later played by Paul Walker, police officer Brian.
Brian is the original romeo who falls in love with the sister of another racing driver, Mia.
So there's no doubt that Paul, who loves racing in reality, was a soul figure from the start.
With the addition of a policeman, the story has positive energy and Universal's worries are eliminated.
Moreover, as an undercover Brian, the struggle between professional identity and brotherhood and love is no less interesting than the original pure anti-hero story.
What has not changed is that Brian retains his original rebellious personality, becomes a less disciplined leper policeman, and is indeed suitable for undercover.
As a result, Universal got a police film with racing elements, that is, "Fast and Furious". The cost of 38 million US dollars, in exchange for more than 200 million box office in the world, belongs to the speed and passion of young audiences, and it is ignited at once.
In addition, the sales of CDs are also very good, and Universal wants to develop a sequel.
Like many sequel films, Fast & Furious 2 ran into creative changes.
The director changed from Rob Cohen to John Singerton, who directed The Killing Men, and more difficultly, van Diesel, the protagonist of the first film, turned down the show.
Van Diesel, who is now the big brother of the series, thinks that he was a talent at that time.
He made his debut through his own films, and was also appreciated by the big director Spielberg, and he can be seen as a supporting role in 1998's "Saving Private Ryan".
When he starred in Fast and Furious, he was better known than Paul Walker. The 2000 sci-fi film "Interstellar Legends" made him a hit, and with the success of "Fast and Furious", he was able to add to the fire, so much so that the sequel Universal gave him the maximum salary level of Hollywood.
However, van Diesel was a disciplined brother at the time, and his choice of script was more strict, which was a major reason for his rapid rise in his early years.
He wasn't satisfied with Thompson's sequel script, so he turned around and found another way out with Rob Cohen and made "Extreme Agent" together.
The loss of two main bones did not make Universal lose confidence in "Fast and Furious 2", and the cost was still given a high of 76 million.
Thompson's script is not particularly good, but his portrayal of the character is first-class.
Roman and Taiji, who joined the sequel, have become resident characters in the future, with a distinct positioning.
However, compared with the previous work, "Fast and Furious 2" is indeed an ordinary sequel, which can basically only rely on the original fan base to support the box office.
Fortunately, the global achievement of 236 million is barely enough to earn back the cost, and the series has the motivation to continue to develop.
The lack of "Fast and Furious 2" made Universal begin to seek transformation, and the third part added more fresh blood and completely became a spin-off movie.
Written by Chris Morgan instead of Thompson, he put the entirely new story in Tokyo, and an Asian-American director named Lin Yibin was pulled in.
Interestingly, Lin Yibin, like Rob Cohen, made films about Bruce Lee in his early years.
The two emerging creators worked very hard, and thanks to their serious attitude, Fast & Furious 3 did not become a superfluous work.
Van Diesel's cameo, With Kang Sung-ho playing Han later becoming a resident character, Chris Morgan played the cinematic universe before the rise of Marvel cinema.
But after all, the starring role has changed blood, and there is no new big name sitting, "Fast and Furious 3" inevitably set a new low in the series box office, only 159 million worldwide.
Fortunately, the cost is not high, according to Chris Morgan, the initial budget is only 10 million, and the final increase in the number of dead is about 50 million.
Lin Yibin and Chris Morgan both wanted to continue, and Universal saw the vitality of the two new talents and decided to give the fourth part of the series the green light.
They officially took over the scepter of the Fast and Furious series, and the real challenge has just begun.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="127" >(2) Heaven and Hell</h1>
Chris Morgan thought of the key foreshadowing and plot for several subsequent films.
The death and resurrection of the two characters spanned as many as 5 films, and such an idea was very bold at a time when there was no concept of the cinematic universe at that time.
Who can guarantee that these ideas will come to fruition?
If one of the films fails miserably at the box office, there will be no follow-up.
This means that every film after that, they have to fight with all their might.
This may be one of the reasons why the series is bigger than the other.
Another reason is that from the fourth installment, the box office showed signs of warming up.
"Fast and Furious 4", Van Diesel, Paul Walker and other main members all returned, and the cost rose to 85 million, which is exactly the standard of an A-class blockbuster.
In the end, the 360 million box office also refreshed the highest in the series, and the return rate was comparable to the first part, the only drawback was that the word of mouth did not get a qualitative improvement.
However, for the owner Global, this is enough to give Lin Yibin's fifth part a quick green light.
The cost of $125 million is both an opportunity and a pressure.
Again, success is allowed and failure is not allowed.
From the first film all the way to the producer Neil H. Moretz, who succeeded Gary Scott Thompson as screenwriter Chris Morgan, and the only lin yibin to direct the series in a row, both knew that Fast and Furious 5 had to further improve its quality, and the more fiery scenes had to be firmly tied to the theme emotions.
The Emperor's heavens paid off.
Moretz successfully configured the film with a luxurious lineup, realizing a premeditated idea.
Paul Walker, Van Diesel, Jordan Brewster, three original members of the undiminished enthusiasm, and the long-lost return of Matt Schartz of the first part;
Teres Gibson and Luda Chris in the second part, one for funny, one for the technology, and Eva Mendes' return cameo;
The third and fourth parts introduce Jiang Sung-ho to lay the foundation for their own character characteristics;
In the fourth part, the newly joined Gail Gadot jumped to the role of face value;
Coupled with the new police camp, Dawn Johnson and Elsa Pattach play two important roles.
The previous old works are therefore all connected, depending on how the director plays.
After the tempering of the two films, Lin Yibin is more skilled in the scheduling of large scenes, and he can already innovate on a solid basis.
Bigger, more exciting and explosive action scenes, combined with the climactic scenes that are enough to enter the history of action movies, the bank safe car chase battle, and even the modified positive film, to see the behind-the-scenes footage, can make people adrenaline soar.
This time it's true that TM defines what "Fast & Furious" is.
Chris Morgan succeeded in sublimating the whole story.
In the fourth part, he lost an important member of the protagonist group, and the Drag Racing family reached its lowest level.
The so-called hardships see the truth, and the unprecedented difficulties have made the bonds of several protagonists more close.
Brian completely gave up his police identity, and finally returned to the illegal driver positioning he had preset at the beginning, which was a road of no return for him;
Mia is pregnant, and if she is not careful, she will regret it for life;
As the eldest, Toledo has suffered a terrible defeat, and he can no longer accept the loss of any family.
Characters with no way back can always do wonders. In the grander story pattern, everyone fights to the death, and the powerful spiritual force overcomes the indestructible obstacles, and what is won from the desperate situation is not only a hundred million, but also a new big family.
This is enough to make the audience extremely moved.
From the visual and hearing spirits to provide the ultimate enjoyment, "Fast and Furious 5" has been a big leap in word of mouth.
With a global box office of 626 million, it broke into the top ten of the global box office list. Unconsciously, the total box office of the entire series has accumulated to more than $1.5 billion, thus becoming one of the few signature series of Universal Pictures.
While the iron was hot, "Fast and Furious 6" began, the higher cost, and the higher box office made the slightly reduced quality harmless.
The big scene of the bigger battle became the most eye-catching part, and the use of a car to overturn a tank refreshed the imagination of the racing theme.
Even strictly speaking, this is not pure racing.
The boundless energy brought by the two core creators, Lin Yibin and Chris Morgan, is the key to completely activating the "Fast and Furious" series.
Like Marvel's Kevin Feige and DC's Zach Schneider, they are passionate about their stories and boldly conceive of grand blueprints.
After Fast & Furious 6 established the status of a super IP, all the initial ideas were basically realized.
Fast & Furious 7, Han's encounter in the third installment is explained.
It turns out that the time of the third part takes place after the sixth part, and the whole series has a mature timeline.
Just as the drag racing family reached a new peak, bad news followed.
The first is Lin Yibin's withdrawal.
Universal hopes to release the next sequel as soon as possible, and the original plan is to shoot back-to-back films for the sixth and seventh parts. After becoming famous, Ke Lin began to take over other projects, and when he was making "Fast and Furious 6", he began the production of the American drama "Scorpion".
Time was too tight for him to choose to temporarily quit his favorite film series.
This was followed by the unexpected death of Paul Walker.
On November 30, 2013, at the age of 40, Paul died in a car accident, leaving countless people devastated.
What's more, his role in "Fast and Furious 7" is still not finished.
Universal was forced to announce a halt to filming.
This super IP, which is in the middle of the day, suddenly fell from heaven to hell.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="90" > (3) change lives against the sky</h1>
From the third part of the decline to the fifth part of the peak, the "Rapid" IP staged a good play of changing his life against the sky, breaking the spell of the series of movies getting worse and worse.
The quality of the sixth part has declined slightly, and the seventh part has encountered such a dilemma, and many people must have felt that this IP finally can't hold up.
Wen Ziren, who took over the guide tube, has always been known for horror films until then, and has never tried popcorn production. Some even suspect that his taking over will cause the style of "Fast and Furious 7" to change from the previous game, and it is difficult to say whether it is good or bad.
If "Aquaman" had been released 4 years earlier, this fear would have ceased to exist.
It turns out that Wen Ziren is an absolute TM ghost director.
Commercial popcorn is such a thing, he is a hit as soon as he gets started.
The audience was satisfied not only by Wen Ziren's assurance of the continuation of the style, and the overall quality that did not drop but also rose, but also that the imagination of the spectacle of the car was once again invincible, but also the way Paul Walker's role in the play was handled.
Of course, this should not be the credit of Wen Ziren alone.
Paul and Brian said goodbye in a warm and touching way that earned the audience's tears.
I don't know how they did it.
Obviously, it is two bad news, but it has become the two boosters of the global box office of 1.5 billion.
To tell the truth, Lin Yibin continues to direct, he may not necessarily have such a new spark as Wen Ziren;
If it were not for Paul's death, which triggered a huge wave of movie-going boom, the box office would not have exploded to this extent, ranking in the top three of the global year, and beating Marvel Studios' "Avengers 2".
Maybe it's not quite right, but Paul did use his life to push the "rapid" IP to the heights it is today. He dedicated the golden years of his acting career.
Without Paul, Van Diesel became a whole new soul.
The situation of "Fast and Furious 8" is very similar to that of the sixth part, after the re-climb of the previous part, there will inevitably be a landslide.
Worse, this time it was a decline in box office and word-of-mouth.
The audience is confused by the whitewashing of Jason Statham's character, helpless about the increasingly detached plot, van Diesel also has friction with the soaring Daun Johnson, and the crisis once again appears like an uninvited guest.
Can you still change your life against the odds?
Different from the past.
It's the age of the cinematic universe, and what's more, the real soul figure Paul Walker can't come back.
Universal quickly came up with a solution to the problem at hand, which was to shoot the spin-off film Fast and Furious: Special Operations, in which Dawn Johnson and Van Diesel each occupied a hill, temporarily non-aggression, while adapting to the changes of the new era.
In "Fast and Furious 9", Universal found Lin Yibin.
Perhaps Lin Yibin could no longer surpass himself, but finding him was the most stable choice.
At the very least, without Paul, the core and style of the series can be maintained as much as possible.
It is almost certain that Fast and Furious 9 cannot change its fate.
But what about the legendary "final" Fast & Furious 10?
No one will know whether this such tenacious IP will burst out of earth-shattering energy and create another round of new miracles.
If there is, then don't be surprised.
Because "Quick Shock" is to have that kind of housekeeping skill.
Resources:
"Who Made 'Fast & Furious' The Highest-Grossing Series of Universal Pictures" "Movie" magazine;
The behind-the-scenes creation of the movie "Fast and Furious 5" is declassified. Tencent Entertainment;
"Lin Yibin will no longer direct "Fast and Furious 7"" North Broadcast;
Image Source:
Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures (Figure 5).