Even though most people on earth love some good, old-fashioned, dangerous car stunts it seems like the current production of the upcoming Fast and the Furious installment is making more people angry than excited.
Filming is underway for Fast X, the 10th main installment in the franchise (not counting the various spinoffs) and the shooting currently takes place in a Los Angeles neighborhood. But not everyone is excited to see their neighborhood on screen, and several of the residents are taking a stand. Variety obtained an email from a Los Angeles resident that maps out the neighborhoods intent upon protesting the filming, which is slated to continue later this week:
If this film shoot is allowed to go forward in Angelino Heights, or any part of it from F10 Productions (Universal) … we will stage a huge protest and will invite many reporters and news cameras to film us protesting this film shoot all day and night. We will hold this protest to honor the 178 people who have been killed by street racers in Los Angeles, and to shame Universal for their callous disregard for this deadly epidemic of street racing their films started and continue to promote.
Though the neighbors are frustrated with the filming, it’s the long-term impact that is worrisome. Fans of the franchise and amateur car enthusiasts apparently turned their home into a hot spot for racing. Los Angeles as a whole has been bombarded with reckless drivers and traffic deaths: last year, there were over 4,000 fatalities recorded in California, a 10% increase from 2020, and it’s on track to increase even more in 2022.
Neighbors in the Angelino Heights area are fed up (and furious!) with the production, which they think could inspire more reckless drivers to experiment with driving by Dominic Toretto’s (played by Vin Diesel) infamous house. “The fact that these people can find the actual spot and then just go torment the people living there is irresponsible,” one resident told Variety.
“Of course, [Universal] didn’t know when they made the movie that it would be such a cultural phenomenon.” Phenomenon indeed! The Fast saga is Universal’s biggest franchise and the eighth highest grossing film franchise of all time, slowly on track to beat out Batman, unless Robert Pattinson and Vin Diesel decide to go head to head.
Fast X is planning on zooming into theaters in April 2023, as long as things go as planned!