F9

[Drunk Monk]

I'm booked for an in-person screener in two weeks. I'm so excited to get back in the theaters. Furiously excited. It's got Charlize. 

Any Furious franchise fans in DOOM? Dumbest movies ever. EVER. 




I can't stop watchin' 'em.

Well, I did work on the first one....

I saw Hobbs and Shaw. That was absurd.

Well, I did work on the first one....

This explains so much.

I saw Hobbs and Shaw. That was absurd.

It gets absurder. So much absurder.

I saw five minutes of Tokyo Drift. It was a racing scene, and it was boring.

Tokyo Drift is the other one I saw. Similar feeling. That was supposed to be the really good one at the time.

Tokyo Drift is one of the better ones. You need to check out one of the bad ones. srsly.

7th biggest moneymaking franchise of all time, right behind Bond, and will certainly overtake Bond until No Time to Die. 

It's already in the black. F9's budget is estimated at $200M. It's already cleared that in PRC, plus nearly $40M across Asia, plus another $12M in the Middle East.

That's right - we're one of the last markets to get it.

Might as well start this thread now. Because I'm a sharer. And y'all need to share my pain compassionately. 

Or at least, enjoy the schadenfreude. I'm a giver too.

[Drunk Monk]

Ridiculous. Like even more ridiculous than previously. Big bass booms. Lots of stuff explodes. A constant excuse for another car chase. So many cliches, it was like checking off the list.

Entertaining tho. If you bother, see it on a big screen with dolby sound. Your iPhone & air buds just won't do it justice.

[Greg]

But you got to go to a movie house! Did they give you a bribe, er, swag?

[Drunk Monk]

Nope. No schwag. 

But it was press only and we got to invite our 'squad'. I had three guests. There was maybe 20 of us total in the Dolby house theater. 

One of my guests had never seen a F&F flick. She was very amused. 

It was a great big screen experience. Very panoramic. That Dolby sounds was impactful. 

We were the only ones in the entire Metreon theater. A very special showing.

[Drunk Monk]

So I did the screener review for KFM. That's already in the can - it's being uploaded for posting on Friday when the movie drops. We always need KFM content and I wanted to do a screener to appease the promo people so they continue to invite me to stuff. 

I pitched an idea to Den and they accepted it. So now I'm banging that out. A two-fer. And Den is freelance so that's extra money. I'm about a third done already.

[Drunk Monk]

Over halfway done now. 

And I feel like I've sunk into a pit of F&F. What a rabbit hole. I'd rewatch the whole franchise if it wasn't all behind a pay wall. 

Didja know this was Gal Gadot's first feature film role? I'm embarrassed that I never quite put together her story arc in F&F. She was in 4 thru 7 and I jumped on for 6.

[Drunk Monk]

oh please oh please 

Vin Diesel Teases Spinoff for Charlize Theron’s ‘Fast & Furious’ Character

BYJOSE MARTINEZ
Jose is a contributing writer for Complex Media. @ZayMarty
Jul 01, 2021



Vin Diesel told [i]Variety[/i] that work has already begun on a script for a spinoff project centered around Charlize Theron’s [i]Fast & Furious[/i] character Cipher. Theron has appeared in the last two installments in the [i]Fast[/i] franchise: 2017’s [i]The Fate of the Furious[/i] and [i]F9[/i].

Diesel’s announcement was included with confirmation from Charlize herself that the screenplay for a sequel to Netflix’s [i]The Old Guard[/i] has been completed, with filming scheduled to begin early next year. 
In 2019, Diesel announced via Instagram that things were beginning to take shape on a female-led [i]Fast & Furious[/i] spinoff, one of the three that were promised to Universal Studios. Nicole Perlman, Lindsey Beer, and Geneva Robertson-Dworet were all said to be attached. Perlman’s previous screenwriting credits including [i]Guardians of the Galaxy[/i] and [i]Captain Marvel[/i]. 

It’s unclear what happened with this project, but it is quite possible that much like [i]F9[/i], which has seen its release date pushed back five times since 2019, this spinoff has experienced its own series of delays. 
[/url]
The same year that Diesel conceived the idea of a female-driven [i]Fast[/i] film, Michelle Rodriguez, who plays Dominic Toretto’s wife Letty Ortiz, was threatening to leave the franchise over the lack of female representation in the writers’ room. 
Rodriguez ultimately agreed to return for [i]F9[/i], but only after a female writer was added to the production. “I felt like there was not enough of a female voice in the franchise,” Rodriguez said, [url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-16/actor-michelle-rodriguez-signs-up-to-fast-furious-9]per Bloomberg. “You should evolve with the times, not just pander to certain demographics that are stuck in the past.” 

[Greg]

I thought the next big spin-off would be with Helen Mirren?

[Drunk Monk]

Helen total steals the scene she's in. But that makes sense because she plays the mother of thieves. 

Meanwhile...

Helen Mirren Agrees With Vin Diesel: It’s Time For Michael Caine to Join the ‘Fast and Furious’ Series
Posted on Thursday, July 1st, 2021 by Eric Vespe

We can all agree that Michael Caine makes any movie he’s in at least 25% better just by his mere presence, right? He’s just that kind of performer. Whether he’s playing a good guy or a bad guy, if he’s onscreen your eyes are going to be on him.

Naturally, that makes him a very sought after actor and it looks like there are plans underway to get him into the Fast and Furious franchise.

Dame Helen Mirren recently revealed to the New York Times that Vin Diesel floated the idea of Caine showing up in a future Fast and Furious flick as Queenie Shaw’s ex-husband. Should this come to pass, Caine would be playing the Elder Shaw, father figure to Jason Statham‘s Deckard Shaw and Vanessa Kirby‘s Hattie Shaw.

To be perfectly clear, this item is firmly in “Wouldn’t it be cool if…” territory. We don’t even know if Caine has even been approached, but it is still a rather intriguing idea, not just because Caine is an always dependable “Never Bad” (ie someone who brings the thunder no matter what the movie is, be it Children of Men or Jaws: The Revenge) but because of the particular baggage he brings with him to this particular character.

What Might It Be Like to See Michael Caine in Fast and Furious?

Caine has a history of playing hard-ass Brits in stuff like Get Carter and his Bond-ish Harry Palmer films, so he’s easy to see as Statham and Kirby’s pops. It’s also worth mentioning that decades before the Fast and Furious films evolved into high octane heist adventures Michael Caine was there using Mini-Coopers to evade the police in The Italian Job.

It’s hard to nail down exactly what the Fast and the Furious films are because the series has evolved so radically since its Point Break-ish street racing origins, but there is zero doubt that Caine’s 1969 The Italian Job is a big influence on the films, especially in the fun dynamic between the folks behind the wheel. The team in The Italian Job might not be family, but I could definitely see them sitting back and enjoying a pint at a backyard BBQ.

In that NYT interview, Mirren sounded absolutely delighted at the prospect of Caine joining up with the Fast and the Furious team, and for good reason. She knows what he brings to every project he does and it just kinda feels right for him to show up in this series, doesn’t it?

If the fun casting idea being floated by Mirren and Diesel does become a reality, we can be assured of at least one thing: he would absolutely blow the bloody doors off.

Helen Mirren Correctly Thinks She and Vin Diesel Should Have Kissed in ‘F9,’ With a Catch
Posted on Tuesday, June 29th, 2021 by Jeremy Mathai

The Fast & Furious movies have provided plenty of attention-grabbing, zeitgeist-defining moments throughout its impressive run (starting all the way back in 2001, well before the MCU was even a glimmer in Kevin Feige’s eye!). With the recently-released F9: The Fast Saga, we’ve officially reached the zenith of the franchise when it comes to unbelievable stunts, returning characters, and Vin Diesel glowering at everybody in sight.

But, of course, social media latched onto one specific moment out of all others: when we take a detour through London for no other reason than to reunite with the appropriately-named Queenie (Helen Mirren), returning after prior appearances in The Fate of the Furious and Hobbes & Shaw. Queenie takes Dominic Toretto on a joyride in a wildly expensive (not to mention stolen) supercar, exhibiting a shocking amount of chemistry between herself and Diesel in the process. But should they have kissed? Mirren thinks so — with a catch.

The Greatest Will They/Won’t They of Our Time

Okay, let’s not beat around the bush. To the disappointment of some, Mirren seems to mostly shoot down this whole kissing thing before it can even get off the ground. “A very chaste kiss would be nice, yes,” she gently suggests to The New York Times. But don’t lose all hope, as she then goes on to enthuse about her real-life affection for her lovable co-star.

“What an honor to find myself driving him, and also very intimidating. Vin doesn’t make it intimidating — he was so easy and lovely — but the technology of this kind of filming is very complex, and it’s a world I’m not that familiar with at all. So it was a great help to have a good friend sitting next to me, for sure. And just to hear that voice!
I mean, Vin has the most unbelievable voice. I go a bit gooey when I hear it. That velvety brown rumble in your ear is so fabulous to experience for a whole day or two. It is like hearing the most incredibly well-oiled engine.”

Look, say what you want about Vin Diesel and his abilities as a movie star, but you’re clearly doing something right when you manage to get Mirren to describe you in such positively glowing terms. And Mirren gushes even further that if Diesel “only if he talks to me before and after” this hypothetical kiss, “of course” she would be on board. “Because it’s the voice that I really get off on, quite honestly,” she said.

If we never get the torrid, full-fledged Dom/Queenie love affair this franchise so clearly deserves, at least we can hang our hats on that.

In between providing tidbits about Diesel being a bit of a mama’s boy (seriously, click through to read the interview in full for yourself), Mirren mostly just seems thrilled to even be a small but crucial part of these movies, and for the opportunity to get behind the wheel herself — on location in London, no less!

“Oh my God, it’s totally why I wanted to be in the movies! In reality, they wrote lovely scenes for me, and I was part of the creation of the character in the first place — I wanted her to be called Queenie and come from that kind of East End family I know a little bit about — but I mostly wanted to be behind the wheel of a car and, of course, that didn’t happen for two of the movies. Somehow, they made it work for this movie, which was fantastic.”

May we all live our lives one quarter mile at a time the way Helen Mirren has. F9 is currently in theaters if you just want to watch this one scene all over again.

[Drunk Monk]

[quote pid='48123' dateline='1623541921']

I saw five minutes of Tokyo Drift. It was a racing scene, and it was boring.

Tokyo Drift is the other one I saw. Similar feeling. That was supposed to be the really good one at the time.

Tokyo Drift is one of the better ones. You need to check out one of the bad ones. srsly

[/quote]
So I revisited Tokyo Drift. It plays out a lot better than o remember for me now. I think I disliked it because of Sean, the gaijin protag. He’s annoying. And of course, there’s the gratuitous car races. But once I got past that, it’s an intriguing postcard of Tokyo. Han is super cool as Asian Hollywood roles go. And there’s some great camera work - a nice one-er when Han first takes Sean to his club, some cinematography that feels very anime influenced. It’s such a sharp turn for the franchise. As far as Asian inclusion goes, it’s quite a breakthrough for Hollywood, even though most of the Asians are yakuza. Han redeems it.

I got these alerts that my Peacock account was activated. I thought I’d been hacked but when I opened it up, it was my mom’s xfinity. She must have watched Boss Baby and unitnetnionally activated it. It’s the free version, not the premium (she’s good about not paying) so I now have access. There’s the next two fast flicks in the Han sage, which I may watch later. 

I wrote my F9 piece blind. I saw this but didn’t remember it well and I didn’t see 4 & 5. So I guessed based on wiki and fandom crib notes. Now I’m idly curious how close I was - I did ok with this one.