TRANSPORTER Director Louis Leterrier Replaces Justin Lin as Director on FAST X
Louis Leterrier (The Incredible Hulk, Transporter) will replace Justin Lin as the director of Fast X for Universal Pictures. Lin unexpectedly dropped out of the project last week due to “creative differences”. Of course, there’s also a lot of talk about how difficult it is to work with Vin Diesel, who is really running the franchise. I imagine he is the guy directing the director.
It’s a shame that Lin left because he has done some great things with the franchise over the years. But, Leterrier is a great replacement! He was apparently Universal Pictures’ first choice, and they are now working on the schedule.
Leterrier has some great experience directing big action films. He’s also helmed Jet Li’s Unleashed and Jason Statham’s Transporter 2. Then there’s 2010’s Clash of the Titans and 2013’s Now You See Me. He also helmed episodes of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance and 2021’s Lupin.
The filmmaker is going to be jumping right into the development, and since he’s inheriting a production with every creative element already established by Lin, he’s going to have to adapt quickly. Lin was a week into production when he decided to walk away.
It’s been costing the production $600,000 to $1 million per day since Lin departed, so they need to get back into action and shooting as soon as possible so they don’t keep bleeding money.
Dan Mazeau wrote the screenplay with Lin. We still don’t have any details regarding the synopsis for this next chapter of the story, but it will be the first of two films that bring the main saga to a close.
Diesel previously teased that there are “angles coming” to the mythology that will make fans smile. The cast includes Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, Sung Kang, Charlize Theron, Jason Momoa as a flamboyant villain, and Brie Larson also joined the movie.
The next two movies are filming back to back, and Diesel has said that the target release date is February 2023 for the first one and February 2024 for the second one.
What do you think about Leterrier coming in to direct the final two installments of the franchise?
Source: Variety