Vin Diesel Races Old-Fashioned Cuban Cars on Set of 'Fast 8'
The movie is the second to film in Cuba since the embargo.
The money-generating machine that is Fast & Furious 8, (or simply Fast 8) is filming in Cuba this week, and the cast and crew shared a video of the production blast in the Havana streets, drag racing old-timey cars and all.
Fast 8 is just the second film to receive the green light to shoot in Cuba, which has been under embargo and shouldered strained relations with the U.S. since 1960. Papa: Hemingway in Cuba, the film staring Giovanni Ribisi and Adrian Sparks following the American author through his time in the country, was the first Hollywood film to shoot in Cuba since 1959. Hopefully Fast 8 will take better advantage of the setting after Papa: Hemingway in Cuba received less than stellar reviews.
The Instagram clips show Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez and director F. Gary Gray taking in the scenery and receiving applause and praise from the locals who seemed thrilled to have the American crew in their city.
“You can feel the emotion from all the locals,” Gray says in the video. “We couldn’t recreate this anywhere.”
Crowds of locals were used as extras for the shoots, gathering for the high speed race scenes.
“This will go down in Cuba’s history, in U.S. history, in cinematic history, in history itself,” a Havana resident says in the clip.”
Vin Diesel himself took some time to address the Instagram audience, noting that Cuba is the place where his character, Dom Toretto, started.
Vin Diesel is a producer for the series, and said Fast 8 is meant to be the first of a trilogy that closes out the series. Expect to see Fast 8 in theaters early 2017.
