David Ayer claims he has “nothing to show” for writing ‘The Fast and the Furious’
The filmmaker David Ayer was a co-writer on the 2001 car action film The Fast and the Furious. However, he has recently come out saying that he has “nothing to show” for his efforts in bringing the Universal Pictures Fast and Furious movies to life.
Ayer was responsible for launching one of the biggest film franchises of all time, pointing out on the Real Ones podcast with Jon Berthnal, “Biggest franchise in Hollywood, and I don’t have any of it,” he said. “I got nothing to show for it, nothing, because of the way the business works.”
The Fast & Furious franchise, which includes the Hobbs & Shaw spinoff, has so far grossed over $7 billion. Another film, which will serve as a follow-up to this year’s Fast X, as well as a further Hobbs movie starring Dwayne Johnson, is currently in the works.
Ayer noted: “The narrative is I didn’t do shit, right? It’s like people hijack narratives, control narratives, create narratives to empower themselves, right? And because I was always an outsider and because, like, I don’t go to the fucking parties. I don’t go to the meals, I don’t do any of that stuff.”
He continued: “The people that did were able to control and manage narratives because they’re socialized in that part of the problem. I was never socialized in that part of the problem so I was always like the dark, creative dude, beware.”
The filmmaker claims that he completely changed the entire outlook on the film when he took the version that Gary Scott Thompson and Erik Bergquist wrote based on a 1998 Vibe magazine article entitled ‘Racer X’.
“When I got that script, that shit was set in New York, it was all Italian kids, right?” Ayers said. “I’m like, ‘Bro, I’m not gonna take it unless I can set it in L.A. and make it look like the people I know in L.A., right?’ So then I started, like, writing in people of color, and writing in the street stuff, and writing in the culture, and no one knew shit about street racing at the time.”
Never Miss A Scene
The Far Out Film Newsletter
All the latest film news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.