'Hobbs & Shaw': Furious & rival team-up

By Zhang Rui
0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, September 9, 2019
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However, director David Leitch said he didn't think the fun came from the two alphas' improvisation. "We don't do a lot of improvising per se. It's more like a painstaking effort of creative writing. So, it's not like improvising; it is just spontaneous. We have a list of stuff, and so we're all trying to make those things better."

Hobbs and Shaw are both such fierce warriors that, as a team, they should be able to easily defeat any foe. The filmmakers needed to create a new type of nemesis unlike any in the history of the franchise -- a mold-breaking adversary worthy of these two fearless heroes. 

   
A Chinese poster of "Hobbs & Shaw" [Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures]

Then enters Brixton Lorr (played by Idris Elba), an indestructible super-soldier, one of their first cyber- and mechanically enhanced prototypes produced by Etheon, a global shadow organization that has perfected cyber-genetic technology. Making matters worse, he's not just some psychopath or greedy mercenary, but rather, a true believer in a greater global cause to kill off half the population to save an overcrowded planet. 

The films of "The Fast and the Furious" franchise have been transformed from underground street-racing cowboys into reluctant fugitives pulling off high-stakes heists on the international stage, and now, the latest installment features a bit of sci-fi. 

"We're also trying to push the envelope of 'The Fast and the Furious' world and design something a little bit fresh. It's the next level human augmentation, next-generation prosthetics and augmented reality vision. Like things that are just leading-edge future stuff," the director said.

The film has a sci-fi setting and dazzling rural fight scenes in Samoa, an island country. Though the scenes were shot on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, for Dwayne Johnson, it was imperative that a central part of his own heritage be incorporated into Hobbs' backstory.

"It was the very first time that we had the opportunity to share Samoan culture to the world," Johnson said. "We can converge the idea that in this culture, we all have the spirit with that you can overcome your challenges without using weapons and technologies."

Johnson proudly hails from a long line of Samoan wrestling royalty on his mother's side of the family. Samoan wrestler Peter Maivia is his grandfather, and his father is former professional wrestler Rocky Johnson. Johnson wanted to highlight Samoa and its people, and create something truly special to honor his culture. 

   
Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham interact with each other on stage at the premiere of "Hobbs & Shaw" in Beijing, Aug. 5, 2019. [Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures]

"Over the years, Dwyane told a lot of stories about his upbringing and his family and his relatives," Chris Morgan remembered, pointing out there's a great speech in the movie made by Lori, Hobbs' mom, when Hobbs opens the armory and discovers that all of the guns have been replaced with traditional Samoan spears and handheld weapons. "He asks, 'Mom, where are the guns? 'And she goes, 'good luck with this, I got rid of the guns, just be a man, and you fight with this.'"

"That is a real story that Dwyane's grandmother told Dwyane's dad years and years ago," the script writer laughed. "And when he told us that, we were like, 'oh my God, that has to go in the movie. That's crazy'."

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