Fast And Furious show revs up for its O2 Arena run
WITH their car chases, daring heists and physics-defying stunts, Vin Diesel and co have helped make the Fast And Furious movies a $5 billion franchise.
Now the famous cars — including Diesel’s black Dodge Charger and the late Paul Walker’s orange Toyota Supra — are coming to the O2 Arena in Greenwich as part of a new live show.
The Standard was given a behind-thescenes look at rehearsals at a “secret” base in the countryside more than 100 miles north of London. I was the only journalist allowed to drive some of the stunt cars involved in the production and even got my hands on the props, including a flame-thrower.
The weapon forms part of the new storyline written for the O2 show. It was created by special effects company Quantum, which has worked on arena events such as Top Gear Live and Take That’s tours. Phil Mundy and his team are also responsible for effects including an after-burner that spews flames from one of the vehicles and a spectacular stunt in which the back of an oil tanker flips over the arena floor and burst into flames. Everything has to be reset and reused every night.
More than 2,000 stunt drivers applied to be part of the show. The list was narrowed down to 20, who have been perfecting their moves for 16 weeks.
There are no home comforts in any of the show’s cars — the insides to most have been stripped out, roll cages fitted, radios removed, along with the back and pas- senger seats in many cases. Driving one, I find the modified tyres and ultrasensitive handbrakes make skidding a breeze. Next I get into a Husky, a huge
armoured support vehicle with .50 c alibre machine gun on top. Sadly I’m not allowed to drive this. A modified, lighter version is being prepared for the show, which features stunts from the eight movies. They are brought to life through 3D mapping — razor-sharp images that are projected on to a huge screen as well as the arena floor.
Fast And Furious Live opens on Jan 19. Tickets on sale from next Friday from fastand furiouslive.com