Louis Leterrier, director of ‘Fast and Furious 10’, explains in detail how he joined the saga and if he intends to continue in ‘Fast 11’

“I’ve made the difficult decision to step back as director of ‘Fast & Furious 10′”. Thus chaos broke out in the production of the tenth film of the successful adrenaline-pumping saga, with the farewell of a Justin Lin who, after directing five films in the saga, seemed unable to take any more. Said director, who co-wrote the film with Dan Mazeau, chose to stay on as producer, but stepped down from one of Universal’s biggest projects. The search for a replacement was urgent as production had already begunbut the unexpected turn caused, according to the rumors of the moment, contrasts with the program of the filmmakers who already had experience behind the wheel of one of the episodes. So the aforementioned studio decided to broaden its horizons by thinking about: Louis Leterrier.

“I said no. I was too scared. They called me in the middle of the night and I hadn’t heard anything because I was walking around and hadn’t seen anything on the internet. Justin is a friend of mine, but he was very busy… So no one had told me anything. Then I got a call from the head of Universal in the middle of the night and I thought he called me by mistake, because he never calls me. I texted him and he immediately asked me to call him back. He told me Justin had to leave him and he asked me if I was interested. At that moment I thought how huge it was but then they sent me the script and it’s very beautiful, it’s from Justin, fantastic. I talked to Vin and various producers about it, I even talked about it with my wife and she was the one who said ‘do it! You’ve been waiting all your life for this opportunity'”, account in the declarations to eCartelera. It all happened in one night. When Leterrier’s wife woke up and gave him one last push, she said the director had even spoken to the prompter. “In the end, between that first phone call and my first day on set saying action, only four days passed.”.

The leap into the void was tremendous, Leterrier didn’t have a minute to warm up, so for him “it was a bit like rebuilding the plane or adapting it to my sensibility while it’s already flying”something that would not have been possible without counting “with such an amazing team and studio”an entire family that started over with him. “I redid everything. All images seen in the film have my seal. It was a challenge, but as soon as I got on set I felt that concept of family.. This team is truly family in front of and behind the screen. They spent almost a quarter of a century together, 22 years, that is a long time. They know each other perfectly, they have quarreled, they have reconciled, they have experienced the best moments and the hardest ones, such as the loss of Paul [Walker]… They have gone through so many things together that I had a certain fear of not being able to make my mark, of getting lost in the midst of so many superstarsbut everyone treated me with the utmost respect from the first moment”, He says. Now for Leterrier, that he says he has never felt so happy professionally speaking and that he also insists if he plays “to the typical ‘it’s a dream come true’ speech”he really lived it like this, that family is also his family. “I feel that everyone is like my brothers and sisters”.

Will he come back for “Fast 11”?

As the ‘Fast & Furious’ team began considering how to end their more than two-decade career, Justin Lin announced that he would take over the helm of ‘Fast 10’ and ‘Fast 11’, Does this mean that Leterrier has joined as director of the double goodbye?

“No. I literally signed the contract [de la décima entrega] on a napkin, i was at the airport saying yes to everything like ok whatever. So there’s nothing concrete, but it went so well that my dream would be to continue. We have a plan, there really is a plan and we have written, we have several concrete ideas. When I see all the directors who have gone through the saga, I feel very proud to have been able to be a part of it, its end, it’s an honor. If they offer it to me again, I will say yes without thinking about it.. This time I won’t say no, I promise”.

* “Fast & Furious 10” it is only released in theaters next May 19th.