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David Ayer may not be the most popular name in Hollywood after directing the box-office hit, but otherwise criticized, The Suicide Squad. However, he sure did help launch a franchise that would eventually win over Hollywood and then turn into a running joke for years. Yes, the End of Watch director was behind the first Fast and Furious movie, titled The Fast and the Furious.
Co-writers Gary Scott Thompson and Erik Bergquist had written previous drafts of the film, but David Ayer claimed he was the one who grounded the material in realism and diversity. He even mentioned that he directly took inspiration from the racing culture in LA and translated it to film.
However, the director lamented that he felt left in the dust by the Fast & Furious franchise as he has "nothing to show" for the work he had done on the initial film. On Jon Bernthal's Real Ones podcast, he said:
"Biggest franchise in Hollywood, and I don't have any of it,...I got nothing to show for it, nothing, because of the way the business works....When I got that script, that s--- was set in New York, it was all Italian kids, right?" he told Bernthal. "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 s--- about street racing at the time."
He also expanded on how he felt let down by the industry after laying the groundwork for the film that would spawn 10 sequels, a spinoff, and over $7 billion in business at the box office.
David Ayer shared how writing such a successful film as The Fast and the Furious did not bring him anything
David Ayer was not at all happy with the response he got while working in The Fast and The Furious, which he seemed resentful about to this day. The 2001 film did wonders for the careers of almost everyone involved, perhaps leading David Ayer to feel this way.
Anyhow, the director lashed out furiously at the system in his latest podcast appearance. He said:
"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. 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."
Ayer further added:
"F*ck all the middlemen, right? I get it. It’s up to me, I gotta self-rescue, right?...I can f*cking whine about getting shot at and all the rounds I’ve taken over my career — I’ve gotta self-rescue, and I’ve gotta create an ecology where it’s safe for me to be creative, and that’s it. And that’s what I’m doing now."
David Ayer will return to screens in 2024 with his upcoming project, The Beekeeper. Stay tuned for more updates.
