Trivia / The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

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• Box Office Bomb: It grossed only $62.5 million domestically on an $85 million budget, though it did slightly better overseas, bringing the worldwide gross to $158.5 million; this resulted in the franchise being "soft-rebooted" three years later with Fast & Furious, returning the focus to Dom Toretto and his crew.
• California Doubling: Some of the drifting sequences were filmed within the Hawthorne Mall parking lot in Los Angeles, due to difficulties obtaining permits in Tokyo.
• Creator Backlash: Rob Cohen, who directed The Fast and the Furious (2001), was very critical of this film, saying: "If you were to just watch Tokyo Drift, you'd say 'I never want to see anything related to Fast & Furious again."
• Dawson Casting: Lucas Black (Sean) was 22, Zachery Ty Bryan (Clay) was 23, Nikki Griffin (Clay's girlfriend Cindy) was 28, Nathalie Kelley (Neela) was 21, Bow Wow (Twinkie) was 19, Leonardo Nam (Takeshi's friend Morimoto) was 25, and Brian Tee (Takeshi) was the worst at 29. Only Bow Wow was still technically a teenager out of the cast.
• Fake Nationality: Morimoto is Japanese, but is played by Leonardo Nam, an Argentine-Australian of Korean descent. Brian Tee is half-Japanese and half-Korean, but an American citizen.
• One for the Money; One for the Art: Supposedly, Vin Diesel's cameo was done in lieu of payment, in exchange for the rights to the The Chronicles of Riddick series of which he is very protective.
• The Other Darrin: In the Latin Spanish dub, Carlos del Campo replaced Salvador Delgado as Dominic Toretto.
• Refitted for Sequel: An unused draft for 2 Fast 2 Furious had a Tokyo setting.
• Technology Marches On: Tokyo Drift was released in 2006, but takes place chronologically after 6 released in 2013, by which time everybody uses smartphones, in contrast to flip phones presented in the movie. This actually works in the movie's favor, however, as many people in Japan still use flip phones.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Channing Tatum told Jimmy Kimmel that he auditioned for Sean Boswell:
    I wanted to go to Tokyo very badly. I wanted to drift Tokyo... I stopped in the middle of the audition. I was like…“I think we’re done, right? This is terrible!” I blocked it out, mainly so I don’t remember the specifics. I think it was a combination of me being just bad, not remembering the lines, totally freaking out... probably sweating a lot.
  • Paul Walker wasn't asked to return because the studio felt he was too old. The first draft of the script featured the return of Dominic Toretto.

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