The Fast And Furious franchise zooms on, its high-speed high jinks hitting the UK for the sixth episode. Empire joins its hard-driving ensemble on set Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx w o r d s nick de semlyen 262 empire empire APRIL april 2013 2013 empireonline.com subscribe at www.empireonline.com/sub aprilAPRIL 2013 2013 empire empire 63 3 Briefing FAST & The Wit And furious 6*

Released: May 24 The Wisdom director: Justin Lin of the fast and the furious starring: Dwayne Johnson, Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, The out-sized series’ most Jordana Brewster And… Luke Evans, epic one-liners Gina Carano, Sung Kang, Tyrese Gibson, Gal Gadot Not forgetting: Ludacris “I live my life Story: Dominic (Diesel) and his crew of car-driving a quarter- thieves are roused out of retirement when a rival mile at a time.” car-driving thief crew start Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), causing global mayhem. The Fast And The Furious Among them: Dominic’s presumed-dead girlfriend, Letty (Rodriguez). Vroom! * Title at the time of writing. May yet change “One car in to Fast Six: London Heist, The Fast And The Furious exchange for Episode VI: Return Of The • Here: Vin Diesel refuses knowing what Letty, or Fa6t & Furiou6. to sit down until the seat has warmed up. Below a man’s made of. left: Sung Kang, Gina Carano, Gal Gadot and That’s a price Tyrese Gibson do the moody I can live with.” action walk-to-camera. Han (Sung Kang), The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift

ust after midnight, 2 Furious, The Fast And The Furious: cast, dwarfed by most of the stars but Forces villain Shaw, isn’t on set; his on the second floor Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious). There was exuding confidence. character is off-screen launching an “Maybe you’re of a Middlesex car the odd memorable stunt or zinger, but “I feel like we’re going into Bond attack on Interpol HQ. And neither, not the good guy park, heavy shit is also a sense that it was all running on territory,” he tells Empire as he eyeballs sadly, is his gang, who sound like they’re pretending to be going down. Dwayne fumes. Then, in 2011, came Fast Five. a prop Uzi. “We have an antagonist for straight out of Wacky Races. “There’s an the bad guy. Maybe Johnson, clad in a Set in Rio, it brought back all the the first time; the dude’s formidable. evil version of each of us,” grins Sung you’re the bad guy black T-shirt, fingerless principals from previous entries — from Basically, it’s Heat on steroids. Super-Heat!” Kang, aka Korean racer Han Seoul-Oh gloves and military noble felon Dominic Toretto (Diesel) to (say it out loud). “Doppelgängers of us pretending to be boots, flexes his mighty motormouthed hustler Roman Pearce who want to destroy the world!” the good guy.” digits. Ludacris stands (Tyrese Gibson) — and set hulking crook- Tonight may be Or, as Ludacris (tech expert Tej) puts it: Mia (Jordana Brewster), beside a table loaded hunter Hobbs (Johnson) on their trail. pure dialogue, but Johnson still pumps “The plot thickens, man. It’s the Legion Fast & Furious with automatic weapons. Paul Walker, The result is a Looney Tunes heist movie himself up like he’s about to leap off a roof. Of Doom up against our Justice League.” Tyrese Gibson and Gina Carano hang tight that blows a raspberry in the face of logic. He looks out towards what will be a city If we’re to run with that analogy — near a row of sleek, dark BMWs, licence Stuffed with bruising practical stunts, vista (currently two stubbly grips in a cherry and frankly, when Ludacris offers an plates removed. And in front of them its many daft wonders include a fist fight picker) and delivers his big line: “I had analogy it’s always best to run — that “$11 million? all is Vin Diesel: statue-still, leaning on with a three-act structure, Diesel snapping a therapy session with one of Shaw’s men. makes Gina Carano Wonder Woman. The Sounds like a railing, peering through binoculars into cuffs with his bare hands and a finale in He gave up their hideout.” Then, when Lin Haywire star joins the series as Hobbs’ a whole lot the darkness of the September night. which the gang break Brazil with a giant yells, “Cut!”, he toggles between jogging sidekick, Riley. “It’s a different look on me,” of vaginal He blinks. He waits. Then he speaks. safe. A surprise smash hit, it grossed more on the spot, prowling in a circle, or pushing says the surprisingly giggly former MMA activity to me.” “Sometimes a little distance,” Diesel “basically fast six than $600 million at the box office. And against a pillar to beef up his arms. In star, who’s been watching Jane Austen Roman (Tyrese Gibson), Fast Five growls, “lets you see things real clear.” many who had previously spurned the contrast, Diesel rarely moves, except to films in her trailer. “She’s Dwayne’s left- Yes, we’re back in the weird and series, including Empire, snapped to shiver — despite the chill, he’s wearing a hand woman and she plays it cool. The wonderful world of Fast And Furious, is heat on steroids attention. Was this a fluke? Or could the short-sleeved polo shirt that later prompts complete opposite of me: I’m a dork!” the Hollywood franchise which gives you follow-up (titled Fast & Furious 6 at the him to say: “I fucked up, I know!” “Gina puts boots to asses,” disagrees primal thrills and philosophical nutrition. time of writing, although it was Fast Six Fast And Furiologists will at this point Johnson, when he rumbles across the car “Give me the The history of the series is in itself on the call sheet) perfect the formula? be wondering why the two stars are sharing park to Empire at 4am. “You know she damn veggies!” a curious tale. It began in 2001 with The — super-heat!” justin lin The answer lies in the hands of a scene at all. When last we saw them, Hobbs can legitimately take you down. And Hobbs (The Rock), Fast Five Fast And The Furious, a moderately Taiwanese director Justin Lin, who oversaw was in pursuit of Toretto’s gang, despite there’s nothing like a badass hot chick vérité flick about LA street-racers. Three the last three in the series, as well as two having already caught them and let them go who kicks ass.” so-so sequels flitted about the world brilliant paintball-themed episodes of (it’s complicated). The answer is that a Big The Artist Formerly Known As The (Miami, Tokyo, Mexico), actors hopping Community. Tonight, at Shepperton Bad has emerged, so dastardly that lawman Rock is already a larger-than-life-character on and off the merry-go-round, titles Studios, early on in the Fast Six shoot, and fugitives must unite to stop him. — one who uses the word “ass” a lot. The becoming ever more indistinct (2 Fast Lin zips between his monitors and his Luke Evans, who plays ex-Special Fast franchise just pushes him further, >

64 empire APRIL 2013 empireonline.com subscribe at www.empireonline.com/sub APRIL 2013 empire 65 now shooting in a giant hangar in Now he has clout enough to be given what Longcross Studios, Surrey, and is firmly he describes as “a blank page and a blank in the running-and-gunning phase. Inside cheque” by Universal. The missing link the carcass of an Antonov cargo plane, between Edgar Wright and Michael Bay, mounted on hydraulics and juddering he’s got ambition to burn and a witty eye. every five seconds, Luke Evans and So Fast & Furious 6 will include such moto Paul Walker are locked in a violent madness as a car chase through Piccadilly brawl. Or rather, Luke Evans and Paul Circus and — as a VFX crew member Walker’s stunt double are, since Walker previews in half-rendered form on his has injured his knee and is watching from laptop — a tank screeching along a road a chair on the sidelines. His face will be on its side while one of our heroes dives digitally pasted, if necessary, onto the off it into a moving car. The production’s double’s body. visited the Canary Islands, Israel and It’s November and several of the Hong Kong, beating Fast Five’s score crew are sporting wacky facial hair for of 250 trashed cars in the process. And, Movember (a knocked-up poster reads tank aside, most of it was done for real. “The Fast And The Furrious”). With “This stuff we’re doing, it’s mind- only a few weeks to go before the film blowing,” exhales Evans, on a break and wraps, on the schedule are various bits hovering near Shaw’s signature vehicle, and pieces for the massive Spain-set finale, a nitro-fitted nightmare called the ‘flip Diesel won’t confirm it, but odds are • Above: Paul Walker which will intercut multiple fights between car’ which flings anything in its path into she’s the “character who’s lost their takes out the pigeon goodies and baddies. “We’re making an the air. “The third act just keeps going that pooped on his car. memory”; signs point towards her Below: Gibson takes action version of an Altman movie!” and going. In script form, it’s just bullet having turned bad and joined Shaw’s things up a level. laughs Lin. “I’m joking. But not really...” points going on for four pages!” crew. Ridiculous? Sure, but amnesia The director, who has recently been No-one seems quite sure how the series is hardly out of place in a world getting one hour’s sleep a night, is on got to this point: it’s mutated into a monster where people surf cars off bridges. a roll. “I wanted a third act that would truck. “In a way this thing has got out of • “I’m a little teapot...” “This story has nothing to do with challenge us to do something I’ve never control,” says Walker. “The first one was Dwayne Johnson is unimpressed with money,” hints Kang. “We got $10 million seen before. Not just stunt-wise, but made for 38 million bucks and I don’t Carano’s warm- each last time — how much do we need? on a narrative level. Here there are 19 know how much we’re spending now. up exercises. So it’s another heist movie, but our loot’s characters and seven different action I don’t want to know.” a family member.” scenes going at once. And what excites But if anyone has the future mapped “When it comes down to it, it’s me is exploring character arcs during out, it’s Vin Diesel. Has there been talk of making Hobbs a John Matrix for a new a family saga,” adds Diesel. “I’ve combat.” He necks the first of his two Fast Seven, over dusk drinks around that generation, unkillable and as armed with Vin Diesel’s home, always said we should approach it in daily espressos. “That was the hardest LA pool? The star-producer-philosopher zingers as he is with ordnance. Who can deep in the canyons of Los Angeles, is a Francis Ford Coppola kind of way.” thing to draw up in the blueprint. I used raises an eyebrow. forget his deployment of the word not a work-free zone. Inside, the walls are dramaturgy and built it.” “Brother, we got plans for Fast TEN.” “thunderwear” in Fast Five? plastered with photos of Diesel riding Lin, who Kang says “lives on the [email protected] “THUNDERWEAR!” Johnson roars, African elephants, a product of his ongoing Two months on border of chaos” and Gibson calls slapping Empire on the arm. “You know quest to make a Hannibal biopic. Outside, from the car park, Empire is “the fucking Zen master”, grew up Fast & furious 6 is out on May 24 and will who came up with that? My cousin Ben, a pool dominates the yard. It’s here, when invited back on set. Fast Six is frying fish with his parents in Taipei. be reviewed in a future issue. right over there with the green jacket. He’s he’s not doing front-crawl a quarter mile a 14-year Navy Seal vet and Purple Heart at a time, where the twists, turns and WTF recipient. I also loved saying, ‘Give me the • Michelle Rodriguez moments of the franchise are concocted. damn veggies.’ The best part of this job is fails her driving test “That pool has changed over the these fun fucking lines!” spectacularly on the years,” says Lin, “but it’s always been third attempt. Well, maybe, but tonight not everyone’s the place where he and I plot out the next digging the dialogue. While the second-unit journey. Literally every time I go over we crew are currently smashing up cars in sit there for ten hours. I’m not kidding; it’s Fast Glasgow, the movie’s stars have reams of a ten-hour conversation.” exposition to complete before they can get Nobody takes this stuff more seriously into the action. “We’re starting with the “it’s a family saga. than Diesel. Feel the tenor of his answer, FAQs storytelling. Believe it or not, there is some for instance, to the question: why is Fast storytelling to this!” says Paul Walker. “Soon & Furious 6 set mostly in the UK? we’ll be running and gunning, having some I’ve always said we “We needed to take the audience on Is Han a ghost? Why is Hobbs always Was Letty’s When the prison bus fun. I guess it’ll be nice to know the reason a journey to a more stoic setting than The franchise’s > At the end of third film so sweaty? return always planned? flips over nine times why we’re jumping off the rooftops.” the festive carnival of Rio. It’s a colder big questions, Tokyo Drift, Han’s car blew up. > While other characters > According to Michelle in Fast Five, how come Tyrese Gibson, on the other hand, is subject. We’re dealing with a character How come he’s still in the films? never seem to perspire, Rodriguez, no. “It was no-one is injured? getting antsy. In his trailer, as he tries to should do it in a that’s lost their memory and it doesn’t hurt answered “Han did die,” confirms Justin torrents of sweat perpetually something Vin was asked about > We’re still working on this. deal with a hacker who’s infiltrated his to have a frigid landscape to support that. Lin. “It takes place after 4, 5 drip from Hobbs’ brow. a lot on Facebook. Finally he blog, he grouses: “There’s only so much talk Our team has to work hard to heat it up.” at last… and 6, but the crazy chronology Empire can exclusively reveal got the studio to do a test you can do in a movie like this. You want to coppola way.” vin diesel And we were expecting: “Tax breaks.” is part of the fun.” Maybe CGI the truth: Dwayne Johnson screening of Fast Five with get to the action and the energy. Get it on.” The movie’s other big talking point is the could age Han in Drift, making it uses a “thermogenic workout that sting at the end, and the Empire, too, is a little disappointed return of fan favourite Letty, played by the last movie chronologically? enhancer” called Sweet audience went fucking nuts!” that we’ve not witnessed anything the Michelle Rodriguez. Diesel’s love interest, “Not a bad idea. But it might Sweat. It’s available in stick She says she fought in vain least bit Fast or Furious. Despite Shaw’s she was seemingly killed off in part four, be a bit creepy, him being form or as an ‘action cream’. for Letty to come back at the machinations, those BMWs have stayed but received a surprise resurrection in a 50-year-old, hanging out end of four: “The producers resolutely parked. photo form at the end of Fast Five. with high-schoolers!” promised it, but I got duped.”

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