With Furious 7 now available on Blu-ray and DVD (click here to order on Amazon), Universal Pictures Home Entertainment decided to go all out with their promotion by flying a number of reporters from around the world to Abu Dhabi. If you’ve seen the film, you know that the city plays an important role in the second half – specifically a huge action set piece that involves cars crashing out of the Jumeirah Hotel at Etihad Towers. It’s an amazing spectacle that floored audiences around the world.
During my few days in the United Arab Emirates, Universal and the Abu Dhabi Film Commission took me and the other reporters all around the city and showed us the sights. Besides telling us about their 30% rebate for productions filming in Abu Dhabi, we got to interview Tyrese Gibson, visit the Yas Marina Circuit, Ferrari World (tons of pictures here), the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, the Yas mall and marina, ate at tons of amazing restaurants, drag raced and drifted at a real Formula 1 race track, and got to see the cars of Furious 7 up close. While I’ve gotten to see and do some amazing things while working for Collider, this trip was easily one of the best.
During the interview with Tyrese, he talked about filming in Abu Dhabi, Paul Walker, how many of his one-liners are improvised, if he now has a Universal Theme Park pass for life, and a lot more.
But before getting to the interview, I’d like to give a huge thank you to Jackie Cavanagh, Evan Fong, Courtney Dolliver, Jennifer Black, Lea Porteneuve, Heather Marshall, and every other person that was responsible for bringing me to Abu Dhabi. This was one of those once in a lifetime experiences that I will never forget.
Here’s Tyrese. Look for more from my trip soon.
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Tyrese:
- I try and play Save or Kill…
- Talks about filming in Abu Dhabi and Paul Walker.
- How much are his one-liners improvised?
- Does he now have a Universal theme park pass for life? Talks about having his daughter’s birthday party on the Universal lot.
- Green Lantern talk.
