"I like films that really break every rule, where the director, writers, producers have gone out, they’re just going, “We don’t give a f— what the hell has happened in other movies, or how other movies were written, or other movies were shot. We’re just going to do it our way.” And those movies not only tickle my fancy, but they always give me a lot of courage when I should have to do something to go, “You know what? Be more like that. Don’t listen so much to the popular wisdom or the collective wisdom, the rules.” And that’s one of the reasons I’m so proud of The Fast and the Furious. It’s because nobody gave a s— about the movie except me and the cast, and so we didn’t hear anything. I just did what I wanted to do. I was very much inspired by the original Gone in 60 Seconds, but the H.B. Halicki version, not the other version. You know, because that guy was staging car chases on the Long Beach freeway with no permits, no anything [laughing] and he was clipping telephone poles and doing all sorts of stuff that was just so balls-to-the-wall. H.B. Halicki was a junk dealer who wanted to be a movie director. And he financed, wrote, directed and starred in the original Gone in 60 Seconds. That was such an outrageous thing that it stimulated me in many, many different ways."
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