1. The film was based on Kenneth Li’s “Racer X,” a 1998 Vibe piece on illegal street racing in New York. Rob Cohen remembered to Reach Further in 2018 that Universal executive Kevin Misher happened to read it and presented it to him.
“Any time I see a tribal, hidden world, my ears perk up because that’s where some really exciting material may be lighted for movies,” Cohen remarked. “R.J. de Vera, a young [former racer and all-around car specialist], was amenable to taking me out for several reasons. Paul Walker’s first night in the street-racing scenario in The Fast and the Furious was that night, with the cops arriving and everyone gathered.”
2. De Vera worked as a technical advisor for the film and as Danny, a drag racing driver, in Brian O’Conner’s introduction to the fast and furious world.
3. Cohen directed Walker in The Skulls, an Ivy League secret society thriller in which producer Neal Moritz asked the actor what he wanted to do next. In a 2001 interview with E! News, Walker said, “To be honest with you, I always enjoyed the concept of playing a cop.” “He came to me three months later with this notion, saying, ‘Look, this is it.’ We’d want to produce something with modern-day drag racing, and we think you’d be perfect for the role of an undercover officer. You get to race automobiles and make up with Jordana Brewster,’ she says.”
Walker claimed he was willing to sign on before they even had a screenplay, despite his team’s advice that it might not be the greatest decision. “My intellect told me ‘don’t,’ but my heart told me ‘go for it,’ and I’m pleased I did,” he added, smiling. “Probably more so,” he said when asked if it was as much fun to make as he thought.
4. Vin Diesel’s Pitch Black was about to be released by what is now Universal’s Focus Features, and the film caught Moritz’s eye, leading to the beefy New Yorker being offered the part of Dominic Toretto.
On Entertainment Weekly’s Binge series in April, Diesel recalled being instantly sold on the character—”tough guy, outlaw, with a heart and a code”—and the film when they described the now-iconic tracking shot that starts with Dom’s arm as he shifts into gear before zipping into the core of his engine and out through the back of the car as he he takes off in the first race. That thrilled him, but the script, when he first read it… not so much.
It was “not what I thought it would be,” he admitted. So, they asked him to meet with newly hired screenwriter David Ayer and they did a “page-by-page critique-slash-rewrite” of the existing material.
Calling the Suicide Squad director’s first draft “very poetic and, as typical, gritty and dark,” Cohen told Reach Further, “Another draft or two, and then it started to find its form, which is a combination of David Ayer’s street poetry and my action bent and love of cars, mechanics, and garages—things that I grew up doing.” (The screenplay was ultimately credited to story creator Gary F. Thompson, Erik Bergquist and Ayer.)