Vin Diesel has two films on the way shortly – the “Bloodshot” comic adaptation which hits cinemas this Friday, and “F9: The Fast Saga” hitting in May. Both films he not only stars in but produces and has a vested interest in them succeeding.
Despite the global coronavirus outbreak panic and all the toilet paper hoarding madness that has come with it, Diesel is adamant that he wants to keep both films in cinemas and on their scheduled dates. He tells USA Today he was pushing Sony to let him still head to China to promote the film despite the outbreak and the closure of all the country’s cinemas. Diesel says:
“I love to show up for the audience and for the fans because God knows how much they’ve showed up for me. I’m crazy. I’m begging Sony to let me go to China, even now. And you should see everyone’s faces like, ‘You’re going alone, buddy!’.”
Asked if there had been discussions about moving “Bloodshot” or “F9” to later in the year, he says:
“Let me put it to you this way: Bloodshot at the end of the day is a soldier and a soldier doesn’t decide or pick when or where he’s deployed. We’re going to go in… [I] won’t fault anyone in the world for saying, ‘You guys are stupid for releasing this movie right now.’ [But] we need movies now more than ever. We’re already in a very interesting time where cinema and the cinematic experience is so threatened. So, yes, put it on record we’re going to show up.”
At present the domestic box office reportedly has not been affected by outbreak fears, but the studios are obviously concerned. The previous film in the “Fast and Furious” franchise made $392 million in China alone, nearly double what it made in the United States.
So far the new Bond film “No Time To Die” is the only film to have flinched and moved its date drastically. Other releases have shifted around, but only by a few weeks and mostly due to them exploiting the gaping hole left by the Bond juggernaut having abandoned April.
