Cannes is doing that thing again where it reminds you it can also program shlock.
With the festival lacking much of a Hollywood presence this year, it’s been announced that a Midnight Screening slot has been reserved for “The Fast and the Furious” for its 25th anniversary.
The screening will take place on Wednesday, May 13, at the Grand Lumière Theatre of the Palais des Festivals, attended by stars Vin Diesel, Jordana Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez, producer Neal H. Moritz, and Meadow Walker, the daughter of the film’s late star Paul Walker.
This is being framed as a celebratory, late-night event on the Croisette, leaning into the film’s legacy as the launchpad for one of Hollywood’s most durable franchises. It’s the original 2001 film getting the red-carpet treatment in a setting usually reserved for far more self-serious fare.
It’s also, amusingly, such an unusual movie to screen at Cannes that it kind of becomes the story. A lean, early-2000s action movie about street racing and undercover cops. Cannes, as always, seems to want at least one big, recognizable Hollywood title in the mix, and they’ve absolutely done it here—just in the most unexpected way possible.
And then there’s fest boss Thierry Frémaux, who already dipped into the franchise with a beach screening of “Fast & Furious 9” back in 2021. So this isn’t really a one-off stunt. Cannes “needed” a Hollywood title, and Frémaux went with something he genuinely seems to like. It’s a little odd, but the trades will be getting what they want.
It’s not like the original “The Fast and the Furious” is anything special in terms of quality; it’s more the fact that it spawned one of the most lucrative franchises in Hollywood history, with eight more movies released. And, in my humble opinion, the only semi-watchable installment is 2011’s “Fast Five.”
But hey, just my opinion—there are definitely people who absolutely love these movies. Case in point: Christopher Nolan, who has said he “watches those movies all the time” and has expressed particular affection for “Tokyo Drift,” which he’s referenced in interviews over the years.
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