Dive, Drive, Dive!

The unstoppable Fast & Furious franchise is all gassed up and ready for another round — its eighth — of carmageddon, this time with a new plot twist (Dominic goes rogue!), new locations (Cuba!), and a new villain (Charlize Theron!) Buckle up, motorheads. It’s going to be a bumpy ride…. again.

- Douglas Tseng

8 DAYS is about to play a game of chicken. With an oncoming car. In Beijing. We’re waiting our turn to cross an intersection in the business district. As we’re counting down for the traffic light to go red, we notice a car speeding towards the junction. And it isn’t slowing down.

We’re thinking: Don’t worry, the driver will probably stop in time. So when the Green Man appears, feeling confident, we decide to step off the pavement and onto the asphalt. Sadly, said driver doesn’t really care. He zooms past us, missing us by a hair’s breadth. Phew.

This would happen to us again the next day, but with a different car (we think). It’s common for the pedestrians here to play live-action Frogger; no one really pays attention to the traffic lights, which are merely there to create the illusion of order and safety. But it also got us wondering: Wouldn’t it be cool if a Fast & Furious movie were filmed here? So far, the carmageddon franchise, which has grossed more than US$3.9 billion (S$5.5 bil) worldwide, has set its stories in Mexico, Brazil, England, United Arab Emirates and Japan, so why not China? How would Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) navigate the killer traffic in his Dodge Charger?

F Gary Gray, the American music video-auteur-turned feature filmmaker whose credits include the hostage thriller The Negotiator and the hip-hop drama Straight Outta Compton, agrees with us.

“I’ve never shot in China,” says Gray, 47. “Filmmaking for me is about challenging yourself to expand, not only as an artist but also as a person. When you move around, you stimulate yourself and grow on every level.”