So we learned earlier today that Justin Lin was dropping out of Summit’s planned Highlander remake to concentrate on a sixth Fast And Furious film. Now he has gone and told Box Office Magazine that he already got a head start on the film with a 12 minute section of the film planned out during the filming of Fast Five. (Warning, spoilers below for those who haven’t seen Fast Five.)
My whole thing is about respecting the audience and respecting the evolution of these characters—and they’ve grown and now the family is back together. And in many ways, some of the big pieces of Fast Six have already been discussed: I already have a 12-minute sequence done. I did it just as an exercise. I had it done before we were finished with Fast Five, actually. So I wanted to do that just to have it there and to be honest with you, I didn’t know if I was going to do a Fast Six. I didn’t know if people were going to embrace Fast Five and we were going to have an opportunity. But I felt like I really wanted to make sure that the last scene, which I had talked to Vin about countless times—I wanted to make sure that was done. So actually I boarded it, I pre-vised it, and I cut it. So it’s funny, when we were in Atlanta shooting it, I already had the end sequence to Fast Six done. And that was what I wanted to work towards.
Now I’m talking to Chris [Morgan, the writer of the last three films], we’re talking to everybody, and I’m re-engaging, but it’s cool because it’s not about, “Hey, people want to see another one-what are we going to do?” Now it’s like, “wow, people want to see another one-and we have a plan.” So it’s been a really great. I’ve just been sitting down with Chris and we’re getting together later today, and it’s much more fun when you kind of know where you’re going to go. That kind of discourse is something I enjoy much more than, “Oh my God—what are we going to do?” So I think in a way, it’s a perfect relationship of the audience embracing it and wanting another one-and us being prepared that if that happens, we know where to go.
Given the nature of Fast Five‘s ending, I would say that fans are probably very relieved that he has an idea of where to take the story next.
