As you’re no doubt aware, the word is in the midst of the growing Coronavirus crisis, and the panic is now gripping the movie business as studios rush to protect their investment by shifting release dates in order to maximize their box office profits. The latest James Bond flick, No Time to Die has already been pushed back to November, while Disney are once again bending over backwards to ensure that Mulan is a hit in China by delaying the live-action remake indefinitely. However, Vin Diesel is refusing to back down.
The chrome-domed action hero’s comic book movie Bloodshot is set to be released next week and the 52 year-old is adamant that it hits theaters on schedule. In a recent interview, Diesel managed to both promote his latest project and once again declare love for his fans, saying that he even wants to go to China in an effort to drum up some more publicity.
“Let me put it to you this way, Bloodshot at the end of the day is a solider, and a soldier doesn’t decide or pick when or where he’s deployed. We’re going to go in. I won’t fault anyone in the world for saying, ‘You guys are stupid for releasing this movie right now’. We need movies now more than ever. We’re already in a very interesting time where cinema and the cinematic experience is so threatened. So, yes, put it on record we’re going to show up. I love to show up for the audience and for the fans, because god knows how much they’ve showed up for me. I’m crazy. I’m begging Sony to let me go to China, even now.”
It might sound a little cynical, but if Bloodshot bombs, then at least Diesel has an excuse. After all, since 2009, the actor has only starred in two movies where he wasn’t playing either Riddick, Groot or Dominic Toretto, and both The Last Witch Hunter and Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk tanked at the box office. But the Fast and Furious star claims that the magic of cinema is behind his decision, not the financial side of things.
“There is a magic to the cinematic experience. I like to support that in every single way. Maybe the higher thinking is not to just focus on the box office, but know that we’re all one world, and we all have to get through this together.”
At least in the midst of a virus that has sparked mass panic and the bulk buying of virtually every sanitary product, we’ve got Vin Diesel defending the art of cinema. On the plus side, with a reported budget of just $42 million, Bloodshot doesn’t even have to do particularly big numbers at the box office to turn a profit for Sony.