Though Fast and Furious 7 seemed like an obvious, but tragic way to bring the franchise to a close, there was no way Universal Pictures was going to walk away from a franchise that was still bringing in over $350 million. So, Vin Diesel did what he does: he announced a new Fast and Furious trilogy last year that would end the franchise for good (and by “for good” we mean for a few years until they reboot it with a new cast). Fast and Furious 8 had already been scheduled for a April 14, 2017 release, but now Universal Pictures has given those last two Fast and Furious movies release dates as well.
Walker’s daughter Meadow filed a lawsuit against Porsche under the banner of “wrongful death,” attributing her father’s untimely death to numerous defects in the car’s design. Industry trade papers are now reporting that officials from Porsche have handed down a response to the lawsuit, claiming that the accident and any injuries sustained therein were ultimately Walker and Rodas’ “own comparative fault.”
For the third week in a row, Furious 7 took the top spot at the box office and made it look easy. Not even a trio of newcomers could slow down the latest entry in the crowd-pleasing action series, which has become the fastest film to reach $1 billion worldwide. On the domestic box office, it’s equally impressive. It’s a juggernaut. A cultural event. At the end of the day, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 may make some money, but it’s making that money in the shadow of a genuine phenomenon.
Furious 7 almost certainly won’t be the last Fast & Furious movie. But at times it feels like a series finale. There are numerous callbacks and homages to the franchise’s entire 15-year history. The setpieces are bigger and crazier than ever; it’s hard to imagine anyone topping them. And before the chases really get rolling, the mood is often downright mournful. Two different scenes are set in graveyards, and characters talk about taking “one last ride” together.
When Paul Walker tragically passed away midway through the production of Furious 7, Universal and director James Wan faced a difficult task. Do they scuttle the film or charge ahead, using rewrites and body doubles to finish Walker’s performance? They ultimately went with the latter option but refused to go into any details. Now, a new report confirms that a digitally recreated Walker appears in the film and that he was brought to life by the same company that made Gollum in The Lord of the Rings and Caesar in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.
Fast and Furious 7 is an emotional movie; there's no getting around that. There were few dry eyes after the screening we attended. But, if it's this emotional for people who are watching the movie, can you imagine what it must be like for the people who made the movie, and knew Paul Walker? We spoke to director James Wan who told us that it's still so hard, he has to get up and leave the theater during the film's ending.
Earlier this week, we were among those in the audience for the first ever Fast and Furious 7 screening at SXSW. It was an emotional affair, to say the least. It's not often you watch a movie where The Rock walks down a street shooting a helicopter out of the sky with a massive gatling gun that ends with everyone in the audience crying, but there we were. An entire audience still processing the grief and sadness of the death of Paul Walker. A few days after that screening, Vin Diesel hosted a similar screening in Los Angeles and introduced the film to the crowd. It was about as sad as you can imagine.
‘Fast and Furious 7’—the next installment in the best film franchise that isn’t Marvel—is coming this spring after some lengthy delays (it was originally scheduled to open last summer), and based on this new trailer, we couldn’t be more excited.
A ‘Fast and Furious’ Super Bowl trailer is almost as much of a tradition as the halftime show at this point. OK, maybe not quite that much, but the past two ‘Fast and Furious’ movies have had their ads, and now ‘Fast and Furious 7’ is here to follow up on that tradition. There are a lot of car commercials during the Super Bowl, but this is THE car commercial.