Filmmaker David Ayer is known for a lot of things from talking up his 2016 “Suicide Squad” film to his gritty cop dramas like “End of Watch” or “Street Kings”.
Less talked about is his time writing the screenplays for other people’s films. He’s well-known for writing Antoine Fuqua’s “Training Day” but some of his other script credits like “U-571” or “Dark Blue” are less discussed.
One such credit is his being co-writer of 2001’s original “The Fast and the Furious” film alongside Gary Scott Thompson and Erik Bergquist. Ayer helped launch what became one of the highest-grossing film franchises of all time.
However his contributions to the racing series haven’t had much impact on his bottom line it seems as he tells Jon Bernthal’s “Real Ones” podcast (via EW):
“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.
The narrative is I didn’t do s—, 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 f—– 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.”
In terms of his contributions, Ayer came in after co-writers Gary Scott Thompson and Erik Bergquist had written previous drafts based on a 1998 Vibe magazine article. Ayer shited the setting to ground it in Los Angeles street racing culture:
“When I got that script, that shit was set in New York, it was all Italian kids, right? 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.
I went to a shop in the Valley and met with like the first guys that were doing the hacking of the fuel curves for the injectors and stuff like that, and they had just figured it out and they were showing it, and I’m like, ‘Oh f— yeah, I’m gonna put that in the movie.'”
Michael Brandt and Derek Haas took over the script for “2 Fast 2 Furious” and it wasn’t until the third film, ‘Tokyo Drift,’ where franchise regular Chris Morgan took over the scripting all the way up through the eighth film and the first spin-off.
The “Fast & Furious” franchise in total has grossed over $7 billion to date with at least two more films on the way.
