The upcoming “Fast and Furious 6” is the last film in the franchise for director Justin Lin, who first joined the series way back in 2006 with “Tokyo Drift.”
James Wan (“Saw,” “The Conjuring”) has been chosen to take over helming duties for the already-announced “Fast & Furious 7,” but Lin’s departure is bitter-sweet.
HitFix’s Guy Lodge sat down with Lin to discuss the film, incoming director Wan, and the series’ admirable tongue-in-cheek qualities.
Watch the entire interview above.
“To be able to walk away while we’re on top, is something that I felt I had to do,” Lin revealed, adding that “F&F 6” offers “resolutions to a lot of questions that people might have.”
Lin also praises Wan, saying, “he’s a filmmaker. He came from the indie word, from Sundance, and he has a point of view.” The former also expresses a desire to return to the indie world, in the mode of his 2005 debut “Better Luck Tomorrow.”
For now, he has to settle for brining indie touches to tongue-in-cheek scenes of greased-up muscles and exploding cars. Lin explains that indies are inherently cheap, and inevitably fueled by passion rather than money. On bigger projects like the “F&F” films, Lin says the trick is to find that passion once again, despite having plenty of money and big stars like stars Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, and Dwayne Johnson on the payroll.
Another trick is to have a sense of humor about the series. “When people think about Hollywood films, it’s almost a stigma, but I like to think that we choose to embrace Hollywood cinema,” Lin adds. “This is the only place in the world where I can wreck 250 cars and nobody bats an eyelash. I can have a tank come out of a truck, and you can’t do that in any other cinema. It’s something that I enjoy doing and I don’t ever want to take it for granted.”
“Fast and Furious 6” also stars Gina Carano, Ludacris, Tyrese Gibson, Michelle Rodriguez, and Luke Evans.
“Fast and Furious 6” opens May 24.