'He saved our ass': Meet the director hired to bring the 'Fast & Furious' saga home
LOS ANGELES — One year ago, Louis Leterrier was in Los Angeles finishing a project when he received the late-night call that would change his fate. Surely it was a mistake, he thought. Had the head of Universal accidentally butt-dialed him?
It was Peter Cramer, the studio's president, and he was calling with a script and an urgent request for a meeting at 6 a.m. the next day. Leterrier didn't bother sleeping, reading it over twice. Within days, the French filmmaker was on a last-minute flight to London, buckling up for the craziest ride of his career: taking over as director on Universal's mega summer sequel "Fast X."
The blockbuster was a week into production and locked into a release date when the sudden exit of longtime helmer Justin Lin, who had directed five of the previous nine films including 2021's "F9," threw Universal's $6 billion "Fast and Furious" franchise into chaos. The mad dash for a new director happened so fast that the opportunity was overwhelming, said Leterrier.
But he loved the "Fast" films. He'd been up for directing earlier installments. It was his dream to direct a "Fast" officially awarded him the job. "I've seen all the movies. I really was a fan," he told the L.A. Times ahead of the film's May 19 premiere. "And it was the one that got away."
