The Fast and the Furious films are packed with muscle cars and beautiful women, which helps explain why the action franchise is one of the most successful in history. Fast Five – which will be release on DVD and Blu-Ray October 4th –  is one of the best yet. The empire wouldn’t be where it is without brilliant director Justin Lin. In an exclusive interview he reveals how he became involved with the films, how Fast Five came together, and what it’s like working with smoldering hot Jordana Brewster.

If you didn’t catch Fast Five in theaters, not to worry: the Blu-ray and DVD combo-packs from Universal Home Entertainment will be released October 4th. Bonus features on the Blu-ray will include behind-the-scenes insight on how scenes like the vault chase and the Dom vs. Hobbs showdown were shot.

HOMBRE: How did you become involved with The Fast and the Furious franchise?

Justin Lin: It was way back…I went to Sundance with this little movie called Better Luck Tomorrow, and it kind of changed my life. I got a call one day when I was shooting in London that the head of Universal wanted to meet with me about doing the third Fast and the Furious. I remember reading the script and turning it down, and she was like “You’re crazy!” So we had this meeting and we talked about it. It actually wound up being a great meeting that set the tone for where we are today. We had discussions about changing the franchise, rebuilding it. I went basically from doing a 250 thousand dollar credit card movie into an 80 million dollar action temple.

H: Cast reunions are sometimes tough to pull off, but you did such an excellent job with Fast Five. Did you have any reservations about doing a reunion?
JL: No, that was really what I wanted to work towards. I love seeing characters that coexist on a screen…when I first talked about it people were like, “no way, you can’t get everybody back”, and I always feel like you want to take those challenges. You want to get everyone in the room and convince them to come back for the right reasons. I think you need that or else it could become stale. So that was definitely what I wanted for this.

H: How do you maintain the staying power of this franchise, film after film?
JL: I think when success comes to films or to anything in life, sometimes people get conservative. They say, “it worked the first time, so let’s just recycle that because it worked.”  That’s the opposite of what I wanted to do. When I came on board, when we were rebuilding it, I felt that if we can earn the opportunity from the fans to do another one we should respect the characters and work on new adventures with them. I want to chart their evolution. To me it would be silly to see Dom and Brian still hanging out at an illegal street race in L.A. They’re older; they have new problems, and I want these films to reflect that. I want to design the look, the style, everything to their sense of maturity. So I think whenever we have an opportunity and the right story to tell we have to keep evolving and not get gun shy.

H: Mia’s character, played by Jordana Brewster, seems a bit tougher than she was in the Fast and the Furious. Can you talk a little about how the character has evolved?
JL: I’ve worked a lot with Jordana within the franchise and outside, and I love talking to her about character, Mia especially. I feel like sometimes when people think about Fast and the Furious, they think about fast cars and beautiful people. One thing that I’m always very proud of is, when you look at these films,  the female characters are all very empowered. So when i sat down with Jordana, it was actually a great conversation because that character in Fast Five could be played as a victim or as someone very weak, and i didn’t want that. In many ways, the whole film actually hinges on her. I think that Mia is someone who’s very strong; from the first film to the fourth film, she actually had to go and find who she was as a single woman, and then the fifth one she’s pregnant. I have a two year old, and just to see someone be a mother, or someone who is going to be a mother, if you’re not empowered then I don’t know what can make you feel that.

H: How difficult was it to choreograph the stunts?
JL: It’s always a challenge. You always want to push it and try things that have never been done before. As I do more of these films, I feel like my team is getting stronger; I’m working with people who get up at four in the morning with me, and we get excited and we challenge ourselves…for example, we have Dom and Brian jumping off a cliff that it would kill any human being. So I look to Mike Gunther, my stunt coordinator, and say… let’s do it for real; Mike, how do we do it?  And Mike went and found this defender that they’ve been using in the military. And thats how we were able to do it. You know, when we’re trying to roll a bus, it’s impossible; the busses are designed so well that it’s really hard to slide a bus and have it roll over. So tell my team, we do it in one shot, figure it out. And we challenge each other. I think thats the one great thing about doing big budget hollywood films, because at the end of the day this is the one cinema in the world where you can wreck two hundred cars and still be on budget. You can’t do that anywhere else in the world, and I want to make sure we respect that.

H: Which scene was the most dangerous to film? The bank vault scene was pretty intense.
JL: They were all very challenging in their own way. The vault scene was crazy because we had to shut down like eight city blocks, and we were dragging these vaults around and wrecking stuff.  And for the chase, Jordana cut her hand and needed stitches but wouldn’t stop and go to the hospital; she just kept going. If you watch the Blu-ray closely you’ll see that at one point in the chase her hand is actually bandaged up. I’m having her jump off roofs and stuff; she was doing it for real and she was so game and I love that. So I just left it in there because that was like the badge of courage.

H: The soundtrack features a lot of Latin music; how did you pick it?
JL: It’s so much fun. I get a stack of CD’s, and while we’re in preproduction writing I’ll start listening to them and picking them. Some of them are so different- not anything you’d expect in a Fast and Furious movie- but that’s what I think makes the soundtrack fun. When I’m inspired by something, it means that there’s a connection…I think that’s how I construct a movie. I find inspiration, and one of the things I enjoy about filmmaking is being exposed to something that you’re not used to and really immersing yourself in it.

H: What do you see for the future of this franchise? Any plans for a 6th film?
JL: There are plans for another one. We’re planting seeds for it, and we’re talking about how we want to approach it. It’s a lot of fun, and I’ve been able to travel around the world with the film. People seem to have really embraced it. I think we’re ready to go on the journey, and now it’s about putting on the final pieces to make sure its the right journey, the right challenge for us so that we can share it with everybody.

H: Any other projects you’re working on right now?
JL: I’m working on about twelve projects right now, some indie movies, some other temples like Terminator. I have a lot of different things of different sizes, even some comedies. It’s kind of my dream to have these kind of options…this is what I do every day. I meet with talented people to work on great projects. I’m excited about what’s to come this coming year.

H: Which car in this film is your favorite?
JL: The classic 1972 Skyline that Brian and Mia drive up in the beginning of the film.