Diesel power: Fast and Furious 6 stars visit Manila

Just after hosting some of the memorable stunt and car chases from the movie “Bourne Legacy”, Manila once again played host to a major movie scene, this time as the first Asian city to premiere Universal Pictures’ upcoming Fast & Furious 6. This was the very first time that Manila became the venue to promote a major Hollywood movie, inviting foreign press from neighboring Asian countries and outside of the region. The film’s lead action star, Vin Diesel, along with fellow stars Michelle Rodriguez, Gina Carano and Luke Evans, producer Neal H. Moritz, and director Justin Lin came to the Philippines to be part of this exciting movie event.

Fast and Furious star Vin Diesel, together with some of the movie’s celebrities were in Manila to promote the upcoming Fast and Furious movie sequel. Diesel reprises his role as the lead character Dom Toretto in the popular movie franchise that brought the underground world of street racing to international spotlight in 2001 when the first film was loosely based on a story published on a magazine titled “Racer X” that talks about racing street cars late at night.

While the sixth installment of this blockbuster will have a number of familiar faces and the usual explosive stunts and car chases, there will be a new set of fast cars which are also considered “stars” of the movie as well. Diesel is joined by Paul Walker, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Sung Kang, John Ortiz, Gal Gadot and Elsa Pataky. Rodriguez plays a comeback-from-the-dead role as Diesel’s girlfriend Letty. British actor Luke Evans from Clash of the Titans plays the role of the villain as Owen Shaw. In the movie trailer he shows off his impressive car collection and is pitted against Vin Diesel with Letty in Shaw’s team. So how is the new plot different from the rest?

“After watching FAST 5 in Rio, at the international premiere last year… Paul (Walker), who has been on this journey with me since 1999, leans over and says, “you know, the best one is still in the can” – said Diesel.

Despite the pundits and critics, the first FF movie grossed over US$200million in the worldwide box office with a production budget of a mere US$38million. In the last movies (Fast Five), world box office figures exceeded US$600million while production budget as about US$125million.

The movie has gone international as it was filmed in several locations – London, Liverpool, Los Angeles, Scotland and the Canary Islands. On the web, social media sites and car club forums have posted movie clips of stunts filmed on location at Tenerife, the largest of the seven Canary Islands, which included a car crash scene.
One of the biggest challenges in the movie is the stunt coordination involving some 300 cars which almost all ending up totally destroyed. The film’s Picture Car Coordinator Dennis McCarthy is the man for the job. Among these cars are a heavily customized 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona, the Ford Escort Mark I (they allegedly rebuilt 7 units with only 1 unit surviving), the 1973 Jensen Interceptor, 1969 Ford Mustang plus some more current model cars like the BMW E60 M5, 2010 Dodge Challenger, Subaru Impreza STI hatchback and a couple of Ferraris (F430 and 360 Modena). The built-from-scratch “Flip Car” buggy was also used as stunt cars during the chase and heist scenes, it features a 500 horsepower LS3 engine using a customized monster truck steering.

The star-studded premiere of the Fast & Furious 6 movie was held at the SM Mall of Asia on May 15th. Vin Diesel and other stars rumbled in behind the wheel of a Dodge Challenger and other Dodge vehicles. The Manila leg was part of a talent world tour that includes stops in other global cities including London, Beijing, Seoul, and Cabo San Lucas.

Aside from the premiere, a car show was organized to welcome the stars and guests at SM Mall of Asia on May 15th. This event was organized by Ladder Events Production, producers of the highly successful Bumper to Bumper Carshows, Metro Rides, Hotter Summer Nights Carshow and Hot Import Nights Manila. Fast & Furious 6 is a United International Pictures Release through Solar Entertainment Corporation. The film will be released in theatres across the Philippines on May 24, 2013.

Text and photos by Alvin Uy