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'Fast and Furious' Franchise to End With 11th Film, Justin Lin Directing

Actor Vin Diesel arrives at the LA Premiere of the 'Fast and Furious 6,' May 21, 2013. (AP)
Actor Vin Diesel arrives at the LA Premiere of the 'Fast and Furious 6,' May 21, 2013. (AP)
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'Fast and Furious' Franchise to End With 11th Film, Justin Lin Directing

Actor Vin Diesel arrives at the LA Premiere of the 'Fast and Furious 6,' May 21, 2013. (AP)
Actor Vin Diesel arrives at the LA Premiere of the 'Fast and Furious 6,' May 21, 2013. (AP)

This one goes all the way to 11.

The central "Fast and Furious" franchise will come to a conclusion after the 10th and 11th films, Variety has confirmed. Justin Lin, who directed the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and ninth "Fast and Furious" films, will return to direct the final two installments and the franchise to the finish line after over two decades in theaters.

This does not, however, necessarily mean that the "Fast and Furious" cinematic universe is coming to an end. While the core storyline following Vin Diesel's Dominic Toretto and his family of fellow car-enthusiasts-turned-thieves-turned-physics-defying-superheroes will conclude after Lin directs the 11th installment, spin-off movies based on "Fast and Furious" characters are currently in development at Universal.

The first of those endeavors, the creatively titled "Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw" starring Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham, opened in 2019 and grossed over $759 million worldwide. Just $174 million of that total came from theaters in the US and Canada, underlining just how crucial international grosses have become for this franchise especially. The highest grossing film in the franchise, 2015's "Furious 7," made $1.16 billion from foreign grosses alone, and made more in China ($390.9 million) than it did from domestic grosses ($353 million).

The latest film in the main "Fast and Furious" series, the tersely titled "F9," was originally supposed to debut earlier this year, but Universal pushed the project to Memorial Day 2021 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

That film costars franchise regulars Michelle Rodriguez, Ludacris and Tyrese Gibson, along with several actors who've played memorable roles in past "Fast and Furious" films, including Jordana Brewster, Lucas Black, Helen Mirren, Charlize Theron and especially Sung Kang as Han, who starred in Lin's first franchise outing as a director, 2006's "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift." John Cena, meanwhile, makes his franchise debut as Jakob, the newest villain, and Dom's younger brother; music stars Cardi B and Ozuna will also appear in the film.

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Michelle Yeoh Brings Chinese Blockbuster ‘Ne Zha 2’ to Life in English Dub

Michelle Yeoh appears at the 76th British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA's, in London, on Feb. 19, 2023. (AP)
Michelle Yeoh appears at the 76th British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA's, in London, on Feb. 19, 2023. (AP)
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Michelle Yeoh Brings Chinese Blockbuster ‘Ne Zha 2’ to Life in English Dub

Michelle Yeoh appears at the 76th British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA's, in London, on Feb. 19, 2023. (AP)
Michelle Yeoh appears at the 76th British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA's, in London, on Feb. 19, 2023. (AP)

When Michelle Yeoh first saw “Ne Zha 2” in Hong Kong, she walked away dreaming about a dubbed version.

The Chinese blockbuster, which this year became the highest-grossing animated film of all time with over $2.2 billion in ticket sales, had seemed to her like an ideal movie for a global, all-ages audience. But even she, who had the benefit of knowing Mandarin, was having trouble keeping up with the subtitles and all the spectacular things happening on screen. How would a kid stand a chance?

The Oscar winner, who is fluent in English, Malay and Cantonese, wasn’t alone in thinking a dub was a good idea. The film studio A24 was already making plans to broaden the audience with an English-language version in collaboration with CMC Pictures. Not too long after, Yeoh got a call asking if she wanted to voice Ne Zha’s mother, Lady Yin. Her response?

“Hell yes,” she told The Associated Press in a recent interview. The English-language dub opens in over 2,500 North American theaters on Aug. 22.

The film tells the story of a rebellious little child, Ne Zha, born as the reincarnation of a demon to mortal parents, who is out to prove his fate is not predetermined. In the first film, he sacrifices himself. In the second, he’s put to the test to try to save his friend and his village. Don't worry if you haven't seen the first either — the sequel tells the audience everything they need to know.

And while this character might be new to American audiences, the mythology is well known in China. Yeoh grew up watching various TV and movie versions, but had never seen it done so vividly.

The making of “Ne Zha 2” took five years and required the work of some 4,000 people from 138 Chinese animation companies. The finished film, which runs an epic 143 minutes, includes 2,400 animation shots and 1,900 special effects shots.

“I think the director and his amazing team, they pushed all the boundaries,” Yeoh said. “They created this magical world that I hadn’t seen to this level of superb animation before. The intricacies are mind-blowing.”

Yeoh also put her stamp of approval on the translation, which she admits is a tricky art.

“With translation, a lot of the times the nuances are lost, right? Because also you have to sync and find the right number of words to say the same thing. And with the Chinese language, especially with the folklores and things like that, the way they say it is very poetic as well. So it is not easy,” she said. “I think they struck a very good balance of not making it too classical, but also more contemporary.”

North American audiences already showed interest in “Ne Zha 2" earlier this year, when the subtitled version earned over $20 million. Some Chinese communities in the US even rented theaters to screen the film. Now, Yeoh believes that the English version will help it resonate globally.

“It’s such a universal language of family, of love, of the underdog, of someone who’s ostracized, misunderstood just because you’re born different,” Yeoh said. “It immerses you into our culture. And it’s such a beautiful way to cross that bridge.”