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Fast X Update: The Incredible Hulk Director Louis Leterrier To Replace Justin Lin

Louis Leterrier also directed two Transporter movies, so he knows his way around shooting speeding vehicles. 

The Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier has been taped to take over the driver’s seat from Justin Lin on Fast X.

Variety reported that the French filmmaker, 48, was Universal Pictures’ first choice for replace Lin, who abruptly left the project just days after production on the 10th Fast & Furious instalment started.

Leterrier is no stranger to vehicular mayhem. He was behind the wheel, so to speak, of 2002’s The Transporter and its 2005 sequel, Transporter 2. Come to think of it, are these Luc Besson-produced actioners Fast & Furious flicks with BMWs?

Elsewhere, Leterrier knows his way around studio tentpoles with 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, 2010’s Clash of the Titans and 2013’s Now You See Me. In recent years, he took up with Netflix and worked on 2019’s The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance and 2021’s Lupin.

His next feature, the French-language action-comedy The Takedown, led by Lupin star Omar Sy, premieres on Netflix this Friday (May 6).

All in all, Fast X should be a walk (drive?) in the park for Leterrier, yes? Then again, he has a lot of catching up to do.  

Main production on Fast X was suspended when Lin announced his sudden departure. (The second unit continued shooting in the UK.) In the interim, the studio is to be haemorrhaging upwards of US$600,000 to US$1 million (S$830,000 to S$1.4 mil) a day.

Meanwhile, New York Daily News reported that Lin — who directed five of the Fast & Furious films — quit  because he’s had it up to here with franchise star and co-architect Vin Diesel’s on-set behaviour.

A producer not involved in Fast X anonymously told the New York Daily News, “Diesel shows up late to the set. He doesn’t know his lines. And he shows up out of shape.”

This isn’t the first time someone has called out Diesel’s work attitude. In 2016, Dwayne Johnson famously ranted on Instagram about the professionalism of some of his male co-stars — but many believed was directed by Diesel — on the set of Fast & Furious 7 (aka Fate of the Furious).  

“Some conduct themselves as stand-up men and true professionals, while others don’t,” he said at that time. “The ones that don’t are too chickens --- to do anything about it anyway. Candya***es.”

Let's make magic: Louis Leterrier giving directions to Morgan Freeman on the set of Now You See Me.

Let's make magic: Louis Leterrier giving directions to Morgan Freeman on the set of Now You See Me.

Last year, Diesel tried to break bread with Johnson and invited him, via Instagram, to return as Luke Hobbs for what is now known as Fast X. But Johnson didn’t bite.

Johnson told CNN: “I was very surprised by Vin’s recent post. This past June, when Vin and I actually connected not over social media, I told him directly — and privately — that I would not be returning to the franchise.

"I was firm yet cordial with my words and said that I would always be supportive of the cast and always root for the franchise to be successful, but that there was no chance I would return. I privately spoke with my partners at Universal as well, all of whom were very supportive as they understand the problem.”

It’s unclear whether Leterrier will also helm the second part of the concluding chapter in the Fast & Furious saga. Lin still retains credits as producer and co-writer on Fast X which, if nothing else gets in its way, is slated to premiere in cinemas in May 2023.

Photos: TPG News/Click Photos

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Fast & Furious Fast X Louis Leterrier Vin Diesel Justin Lin

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