Fast and Furious 7 became one of the highest grossing movies of all-time earlier this year when it earned a whopping $1.5 billion at the worldwide box office. Paul Walker’s tragic death delayed that movie’s release, so Universal is obviously keen to get to work on the eighth instalment. The only problem right now is that they have no one to direct the damn thing!
With an already announced release date of 2017 and Chris Morgan writing the script, Universal were hoping that James Wan would return to direct. Instead, he’s decided to crack on with a sequel to The Conjuring despite being offered what The Hollywood Reporter’s sources describe as “life-altering money” to tackle Fast and Furious 8. Why turn that down?
Well, Fast and Furious 7 apparently pushed the filmmaker to the edge, and the stress of the production (which was obviously greatly complicated when Walker died) actually caused Wan health issues. Contributing to that was star Vin Diesel, a producer on the franchise who proved extremely demanding and may have actually slowed down production as a result.
Diesel’s spokesperson denies those claims, as does his fellow producer Neal Moritz, who adds: “Obviously, if there was any issue, we wouldn’t be making the eighth [film] with [Diesel] right now.” After approaching experienced action directors like Non-Stop’s Jaume Collet-Serra and various other newer filmmakers, sources claim that Universal are beginning to worry that Diesel may end up using his his position to direct Fast and Furious 8 himself!
Whether or not that happens remains to be seen, but the actor is so committed to the Fast and Furious franchise that him taking over might not be the worst thing in the world. Right?
