Vin Diesel couldn’t help but shed a few tears as the credits rolled on the special midnight screening of “The Fast and the Furious” at Cannes. It was enough that the festival considered the high-octane racing movie a “classic” after all these years. But, the emotion was heightened by watching his bond with the late Paul Walker form on the big screen.
Diesel wasn’t alone in his emotion — his co-stars Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez and Walker’s 27-year-old daughter, Meadow, all wiped tears away as the sold-out crowd gave them an extended standing ovation.
Before the screening, Diesel took the mic from the middle of the sold-out theater and showed some love to Cannes director Thierry Frémaux.
“Thierry, where did you get everyone?” Diesel joked. “It’s impossible. I’ve never seen a midnight screening like this in my whole life. Thierry, it’s not like this movie hasn’t been out for a minute. You know, you said something to me earlier today at lunch, something I’ll never forget. You said to me, ‘Vin, you came here 31 years ago as a director, writer and actor of a short film. When you came, you had a laundry bag as a suitcase. No one in the world knew you.’ You said, ‘The reason why it’s so special that you’re here now is because, in my mind, you, Vin, were born in Cannes.”
The crowd was extremely warm to Diesel, who received shouts of “we love you” from audience members and many rounds of raucous applause and laughter. In a moment of self-deprecating humor, acknowledging he was close to overstaying his welcome on the mic, Diesel joked, “Fuck the film. I’m only here once in my whole life.”
Diesel then turned his attention to the “Fast and the Furious” fans. He also gave a special shoutout to Meadow for joining him at the screening.
“This is a film where brotherhood was introduced to our millennium, by myself and my brother Pablo,” Diesel continued. “And the person that was not going to let me come alone here to represent that brotherhood is Meadow Walker. I’m gonna go and shed a tear real quick, but I just want you all to know, the only reason why we’re making the finale of ‘Fast’ for 2028 is because of each and every one of you that has given us your hearts and your loyalty. Each and every one of you that has felt like you were a part of our family, you make us have to continue. You make us want to make you all proud. What you’re gonna watch tonight is the beginning of one word, and that word is love. I love you all.”
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“The Fast and the Furious” launched Universal Pictures’ longest-running and most profitable movie franchise, which has earned more than $7 billion at the worldwide box office. The franchise has released 11 feature films over the last 25 years — 10 “Fast” movies and the spinoff “Hobbs & Shaw” — with the reported final “Fast” movie dated for release on March 17, 2028.
The 2001 original, directed by Rob Cohen and co-written by David Ayer, opened in the summer and became a box office hit with $207 million worldwide on a reported $38 million budget. The franchise would evolve into some of Hollywood’s most expensive movies ever, with 2023’s “Fast X” costing more than $300 million to produce. 2015’s “Furious 7” and 2017’s “The Fate of the Furious” both crossed the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office.
The next “Fast” film, titled “Fast Forever,” is expected to conclude the quarter-century saga of Diesel’s Dominic Toretto and his crew of street racers-turned-skilled government assets. Variety reported in March that Michael Lesslie had boarded the film as screenwriter, with director Louis Leterrier (who joined the franchise for “Fast X”) set to return.
“25 years. Eight directors. Countless writers, crew members, performers, each one giving something real to a saga that has outlasted trends, cynics, and time itself,” Diesel wrote on Instagram at the time. “That doesn’t happen by accident… It happens because people show up and pour themselves into something bigger than any one individual.”
From Variety US