Movies Director Justin Lin Steps Down From Directing Two-Part Franchise Finale Fast 10 + Fast 11

[Greatoneshere]

The thread title says it all. After directing films 3, 4, 5, 6, and 9; Justin Lin has now stepped down in the midst of production on Fast 10 over the typical "creative differences":

 

Fast X Director Justin Lin Steps Down - IGN

WWW.IGN.COM

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Fast and Furious director Justin Lin steps down from Fast X as Universal begins looking for a replacement director.

 

Personally, I still watch all the films but they sort of peaked with 5 and 6 for me. I remember 7 (James Wan) and 8 (F. Gary Gray) to a degree, but the series has become too overblown (Hobbs & Shaw (David Leitch) was fun but very stupid and silly), even though that's also part of the appeal. I do think it's time to end the franchise, it's a shame Justin Lin won't see it off. They let him make Fast 9 just fine it seems (I still haven't seen that one yet) so not sure what happened here, production had already begun.

 

Also note that Chris Morgan, the sole screenwriter of the Fast & Furious franchise since Tokyo Drift (he came along with Justin Lin), has solely written 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and Hobbs & Shaw. He's also been kicked off the franchise, as he did not write Fast 9 (Justin Lin and co-writer Daniel Casey wrote that one) and he is also not a part of Fast 10 or Fast 11. So both Chris Morgan and Justin Lin, the duo who revived the franchise with Fast Five and have been doing them together since number 3, Tokyo Drift, are both gone at this point to not be there to close things out.

 

Edit: some outlets are reporting this is meant to be a trilogy ending on Fast 12, but I've personally only kept hearing about a two movie finale, so just putting that out there.

[skillzdadirecta]

Vin Disel must really be a dick to work with.

[Greatoneshere]

3 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Vin Disel must really be a dick to work with.

 

Yeah, and I just edited the OP to add the part about screenwriter Chris Morgan. I actually like Vin Diesel, but with Dwayne Johnson, Justin Lin, and Chris Morgan all gone now, I dunno. 

[EternallDarkness]

As I said on twitter....Things were moving too fast and he got furious and walked away 

[Fizzzzle]

From what I've read, Vin Diesel (who has been a producer since the 4th movie) basically treats it like "my way or the highway." Get on board or get out, etc.

 

I feel like I barely even remember the last 2 movies, even though I know I've seen them. I agree that they peaked with 5/6, and then it's just spinning wheels.

[silentbob]

I’m not a big fan of the series but I watch them still for the popcorn fun. They almost work like the Star Trek movies for my dad. Good, bad, good, bad, good and so on. I haven’t seen the last one yet but I actually really enjoyed Fast 8 for some odd reason. Waiting for Vin to step behind the camera and make it truly his franchise. 

[Greatoneshere]

It was interesting checking the reviews for "F9" (also known as F9: The Fast Saga and internationally as Fast & Furious 9, oh the naming of these movies is the best part) that it's got a weird dichotomy. Critics on RottenTomatoes were lukewarm on it (59%), audiences on IMDb blasted the film giving it the lowest rating in the franchise (with a 5.2 after 122,000 votes) but on RottenTomatoes audience rating was pretty good with an 82% (verified audience) / 71% (all audience). So now I'm wondering what the deal is with it. Anyone here seen it? Good or bad (without spoiling anything)? Where does it rank among the franchise (including Hobbs & Shaw)?

 

For a quick reminder to those who don't remember past 5 and 6, 7 was the film where Paul Walker died before they completed shooting, directed by James Wan and 8 was the first one with Charlize Theron where Vin Diesel seems to betray his fambly, directed by F. Gary Gray. I have not seen 9 yet. 

[Keyser_Soze]

I've only seen the first one. Come at me bros!

[EternallDarkness]

16 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

I have not seen 9 yet. 

 

it's....ummm....brings a whole new meaning to 'jumped the shark'  I know I'll still go see the movies but at this point I am not sure what heck they can possible do to one up the last few. I mean unless they add in a dinosaur or the shark from the Meg or go to the center of the earth they've done everything possible.

 

13 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

I've only seen the first one. Come at me bros!

 

they are mindless fun with some of them being pretty dang entertaining 

[DarkStar189]

 

11 hours ago, Greatoneshere said:

Edit: some outlets are reporting this is meant to be a trilogy ending on Fast 12, but I've personally only kept hearing about a two movie finale, so just putting that out there.

 

Man that sounds like a horrible idea. The last couple movies have been so forgetful to me. I barely remember what happens in them. The thought of 3 more is gross haha. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

10 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

I've only seen the first one. Come at me bros!

 

I've never seen ANY of 'em!

 

COME AT ME HARDER, BROS!

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

C'mon, Vin, step into the director's chair to finish out this series - you KNOW you WANT to!

[Jason]

10 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

I've only seen the first one. Come at me bros!

 

I've never even seen that one.

[Amazatron]

I fully expected ridiculousness going into F9, but it still blew me away at how spectacularly stupid it is.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

"I'm not going to direct a film where 'family' is every other word of dialogue".

[Jason]

5 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

"I'm not going to direct a film where 'family' is every other word of dialogue".

 

i getchu fam

[TheLeon]

I think Fast Five is the only seen I've all the way through, and from what I understand that's generally considered the best one. 

[Captain Pickle]

12 hours ago, EternallDarkness said:

As I said on twitter....This were moving too fast and he got furious and walked away 

Apparently you were typing too fast and furious 

[TwinIon]

If I enjoyed these movies at all I'd be worried about the next two.

[skillzdadirecta]

2 hours ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

C'mon, Vin, step into the director's chair to finish out this series - you KNOW you WANT to!

He's probably orchestrating this so this is exactly what happens. Shit he's probably been a defacto director on these anyway... I can only imagine getting notes from him at this point.

 

I've seen all of these movies but only a couple in actual theaters. Usually I wait for these to come on cable or streaming. They're dumb fun nothing more than that. Emphasis on dumb. The differences is, unlike Bay's Transformer movies, these movies KNOW how dumb they are and lean into it. Vin Diesel is the only one who seems like he's in a different movie 

[DarkStar189]

1 minute ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Vin Diesel is the only one who seems like he's in a different movie 

very true

[Greatoneshere]

4 hours ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

C'mon, Vin, step into the director's chair to finish out this series - you KNOW you WANT to!

 

As skillz also said, I absolutely believe he wants to direct them (or anything) himself. He's always wanted to direct, he did the Los Bandoleros short film for Fast 4. He also directed in 1995 the short film Multi-Facial and the feature film Strays in 1997, the two of which (particularly Multi-Facial) is the reason Spielberg hired him for Saving Private Ryan. 

 

He's always wanted to direct a Hannibal Barca biopic about the Carthaginian general (probably too late for that now). So he definitely has the bug, but to get rid of Lin? Harder to believe, he's worked with him countlessly.

[Jason]

1 minute ago, Greatoneshere said:

probably too late for that now

?

[Fizzzzle]

For anyone's curious, here's my quick rundown of the movies:

 

The first 3 movies are stupid, but also really fun. They basically take other movies, translate them to (then) current times and go "but with CARS go vroom!" The first one is Point Break with cars. The second one is Miami Vice with cars. The third one is Karate Kid with cars. All 3 of those movies are also basically perfect snapshots of "cool bro" zeitgeist from their respective periods in the most aggressive way possible, and I don't mean that as a bad thing.

 

The 4th movie basically just acts as a prelude to the 5th one, bringing everything back together. The 5th one (and maybe the 6th, kinda) is the only one in the series that I will unabashedly say is an objectively good movie, by any standards. And they stick to the formula. Fast Five is Ocean's Eleven with cars, go vroom. There's nothing wrong with that, Ocean's Eleven is a fantastic movie. Also, weirdly, Fast Five being as good as it is kind of makes the earlier movies retroactively better.

 

Starting with 6, they just get increasingly more ridiculous. the sixth movie has a "villain gets caught on purpose" plot, which I can't fucking stand because it's fucking stupid every time, but other than that it's pretty enjoyable.

 

The 7th movie is where they parachute cars from an airplane and jump a car between skyscrapers. It's just kind of downhill from there. 7-9 are just kind of a blur for me.

 

Hobbs & Shaw is entertaining enough, I suppose, if you're just bored and have nothing else to watch. It's an action movie with The Rock in it, if you've seen one of them, you've seen them all.

[Keyser_Soze]

10 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

As skillz also said, I absolutely believe he wants to direct them (or anything) himself. He's always wanted to direct, he did the Los Bandoleros short film for Fast 4. He also directed in 1995 the short film Multi-Facial and the feature film Strays in 1997, the two of which (particularly Multi-Facial) is the reason Spielberg hired him for Saving Private Ryan. 

 

He's always wanted to direct a Hannibal Barca biopic about the Carthaginian general (probably too late for that now). So he definitely has the bug, but to get rid of Lin? Harder to believe, he's worked with him countlessly.

 

Remember his Oscar worthy performance in Find Me Guilty?

[Greatoneshere]

22 minutes ago, Jason said:

?

 

He's always struggled to get funding for years at this point for it, and he wanted to star as Hannibal himself, and I think he's too old now for the role. Doesn't mean it can't still happen, but I doubt it. Vin hasn't mentioned anything as far as I know for awhile now as well.

 

14 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

Remember his Oscar worthy performance in Find Me Guilty?

 

Vin Diesel's been good in quite a few things, including that. But he's not really doing a lot of movies in general.

[Greatoneshere]

13 minutes ago, Fizzzzle said:

For anyone's curious, here's my quick rundown of the movies:

 

The first 3 movies are stupid, but also really fun. They basically take other movies, translate them to (then) current times and go "but with CARS go vroom!" The first one is Point Break with cars. The second one is Miami Vice with cars. The third one is Karate Kid with cars. All 3 of those movies are also basically perfect snapshots of "cool bro" zeitgeist from their respective periods in the most aggressive way possible, and I don't mean that as a bad thing.

 

The 4th movie basically just acts as a prelude to the 5th one, bringing everything back together. The 5th one (and maybe the 6th, kinda) is the only one in the series that I will unabashedly say is an objectively good movie, by any standards. And they stick to the formula. Fast Five is Ocean's Eleven with cars, go vroom. There's nothing wrong with that, Ocean's Eleven is a fantastic movie. Also, weirdly, Fast Five being as good as it is kind of makes the earlier movies retroactively better.

 

Starting with 6, they just get increasingly more ridiculous. the sixth movie has a "villain gets caught on purpose" plot, which I can't fucking stand because it's fucking stupid every time, but other than that it's pretty enjoyable.

 

The 7th movie is where they parachute cars from an airplane and jump a car between skyscrapers. It's just kind of downhill from there. 7-9 are just kind of a blur for me.

 

Hobbs & Shaw is entertaining enough, I suppose, if you're just bored and have nothing else to watch. It's an action movie with The Rock in it, if you've seen one of them, you've seen them all.

 

I basically agree with all of this, you nailed it, including each movie co-opting a genre and the 5th making the first 4 better. I also believe things started to fall off after 6, 7 was fine and 8 was also, fine, I guess. I remember parts of them but, again, it's all just gotten so overblown. 

[skillzdadirecta]

20 minutes ago, Fizzzzle said:

Hobbs & Shaw is entertaining enough, I suppose, if you're just bored and have nothing else to watch. It's an action movie with The Rock in it, if you've seen one of them, you've seen them all.

Don't forget, Hobbs and Shaw got in on the superhero trend by introducing legit superpowers into the universe. Your assessment of the movies and series is spot on.

[DarkStar189]

22 minutes ago, Fizzzzle said:

The 7th movie is where they parachute cars from an airplane and jump a car between skyscrapers. It's just kind of downhill from there. 7-9 are just kind of a blur for me.

Yeah those movies seem to have gotten bigger, flashier, and more forgetful. In part 7 I only vividly remember the scene with Vin Diesel holding up the car with his bare hands while Paul Walker is underneath-then jumping said car between buildings. Then the Paul Walker send off at the end. When I think of 8, I think of ice and a submarine. 

I have another memory in my head with The Rock picking up a drone with a huge gun on it and shooting something. Was that a Fast/Furious movie? can't keep this shit straight. 

[skillzdadirecta]

11 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

Vin Diesel's been good in quite a few things, including that. But he's not really doing a lot of movies in general.

Yeah he's a legit talented guy who has chops. He just might be a bit of a primadonna on set. That's the feeling I'm getting.

 

1 minute ago, DarkStar189 said:

 

I have another memory in my head with The Rock picking up a drone with a huge gun on it and shooting something.

 Yeah it's definitely a Fast and Furious movie. I forget which one.

[SoberChef]

Like I know that the crew had plans for a multitude of sequels, but to be fair, when Paul passed away, the series should have died with him.

[Derek]

I think I speak for everyone here when I say that we're more excited for Riddick 4 than we are for the F and F finale!

[Greatoneshere]

6 hours ago, Derek said:

I think I speak for everyone here when I say that we're more excited for Riddick 4 than we are for the F and F finale!

 

I mean, I definitely am. Always been a bigger fan of the Riddick series over the Fast series. The xXx series I don't think I've even seen 2 or 3, and I only saw the first one back when it came out ages ago.

[Guest]

I’ve only seen 1 and 7, I think. Maybe 2? not really my jam.

[Keyser_Soze]

6 hours ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

I mean, I definitely am. Always been a bigger fan of the Riddick series over the Fast series. The xXx series I don't think I've even seen 2 or 3, and I only saw the first one back when it came out ages ago.

 

Well you're really missing out by not seeing the second xXx let me tell you!