Neighbors in the Angelino Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles took to the streets to show their displeasure ahead of the filming of Fast Xthe next installment in Universal’s flagship saga, Fast and Furious. According to them, the franchise encourages illegal car racing in this historic area of the City of Angels.
In France, controversies are rife around the practice of urban rodeo; last May, the Cannes Film Festival also welcomed Rodeo by Lola Quivoron, in theaters on September 7, whose director was violently singled out for her controversial remarks (the director explained this last month, in the columns of the Parisian). On the other side of the Atlantic, this is the next part of the saga Fast and Furious who is talking regarding him today: residents of Angelino Heights, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Los Angeles, demonstrated this weekend as the filming of Fast X, the eleventh film in Universal’s flagship saga (more than six billion dollars at the worldwide box office).
Fast and Furieux
Indeed, it is in this district that scenes of the franchise are regularly filmed, since its beginnings in 2001, since we find there the house of the main character – Dominic Toretto, always interpreted to this day by Vin Diesel – as well as the family store, Bob’s Market. While the shots of Fast X (whose original director, Justin Lin, was replaced at short notice by Louis Leterrier) were due to start this weekend, local residents gathered to lament the negative impact of the franchise on the recurrence of illegal urban races, generally in the middle of the night.
Damian Kevitt, resident and president of the SAFE association, says that the film saga has made it possible to ” glorify illegal activity and made Angelino Heights a ” touristic destination for these street races which, according to some residents of the district, would have been popularized following the arrival of to the saga Fast and Furious. In the United States, road accident deaths increased by 21% in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the year 2020.
While addressing their demands to the city (the installation of speed bumps and a zero tolerance policy), associations and residents urged the Universal studio to move this emblematic filming location to another location and to add a mention to the credits of Fast and Furious in order to incite the public not to participate in these illegal races. The studio has not yet provided a press release on the matter. The output of Fast X is currently scheduled for May 24, 2023.
