Fast & Furious 7 release date changes again

Fast & Furious 7 has had yet another schedule change along with a couple other movies that already had dates set. It will now open a week earlier than planned on April 3, 2015. As a result, Insidious: Chapter 3 will now open later than expected on May 29, 2015 as F&F has taken the April 3rd date.

After an unfortunate delay, the street racing film has wrapped shooting and is now in post-production. The film was indefinitely delayed after the unexpected death of Paul Walker in November. 

CGI doubles for Paul Walker to be used in Fast and Furious 7

When Paul Walker passed unexpectedly in November, a lot were wondering if CGI was going to be used to fill the void in Fast and Furious 7. There is now a report stating that Universal will indeed utilize CGI and body doubles in place of Paul Walker in certain scenes that had not been filmed at the time of his death. The report states that four actors similar to Walker's height and features have been hired to fill the void.

This isn't the first time this has happened. Ridley Scott and the production of Gladiator did the exact same thing in 1999 when Oliver Reed passed away during the production. Fast and Furious 7 is set to resume filming in April.

Fast & Furious 7 to resume in April

After taking an extended hiatus after the sudden death of Paul Walker, Universal announced their intent to pick production back up on Fast & Furious 7 in April. There is an estimated 6-8 weeks left of filming and the hiatus, so far, has lasted almost three months. Production will pick up in Atlanta which is where it was scheduled to go after Thanksgiving.

They also announced their intent to use the footage of Walker that had been filmed prior to his death in a tasteful way to "retire" his character, not kill him off. Fast & Furious 7 is being directed by horror director James Wan and received a new release date of April 10, 2015. It was originally set for release this July.

Paul Walker to "retire" from Fast & Furious

It seems that Universal has made up their minds on the fate of Paul Walker regarding the Fast and Furious franchise.

Walker's character, Brian O'Conner, will be retired from the series. He had already filmed scenes for the seventh installment and it seems that instead of "killing off" the character, he will be retired in a way that they hope will please the fans. Screenwriter Chris Morgan stated that Walker's character will still be an important part of the film and will not be omitted in any way. Here's to hoping Morgan and director James Wan have come up with something respectful and fitting to the story.

Fast & Furious 7 recently received a new release date of April 10, 2015. 

Fast & Furious 7 pushed to 2015

I figured this was coming.

Vin Diesel announced via Facebook that Fast & Furious 7 has officially joined a very crowded release year as it has been moved to April 10, 2015. This is almost a full year after the original planned release of July 11, 2014.

The move comes after Paul Walker's unexpected and sudden death on November 30th. Universal delayed production indefinitely to give all cast and crew, along with the fans, proper time to grieve the loss. There was some speculation that with fast work they could still make the release date because they were reportedly halfway done with filming, but in the end it seems they figured the best thing to do would be to delay. I think this is for the best because now they have enough time to fix what needed to be fixed and to figure out how to move forward.
Despite the news of the new release date, there is still no explanation on plot details or what will become of Walker's character, Brian O'Conner.

Fast and Furious might start from scratch

In addition to the grief around Paul Walker's unexpected death, there is a problem due to the fact that he was in the middle of filming a movie. Previously it was announced that Fast and Furious 7 had been put on an indefinite hold, but there is now some talk that the film may be scrapped and started from scratch with a new script that excludes Walker's character.

Fast and Furious 7 was already halfway finished filming, but most of the key scenes involving Paul Walker were not completed yet. The big concern by Universal and director James Wan is how to move forward without tarnishing Paul Walker's memory and disrespecting the fans. In addition to the production indefinitely stopping, another option being explored is to restart and basically cut out Walker's character altogether. Personally, I find that the most disrespectful option.
The other option is to do rewrites and try and work around the scenes that were not filmed yet. There is a big possibility of body doubles, like what they did when Brandon Lee died during filming of The Crow, so fans can kind of feel like they are saying goodbye to Walker while seeing him on-screen one more time. One minor detail with this thought is the potential for CGI to be introduced and have Walker's face digitally placed onto a double.

The bottom line is there is no getting around that Walker starred in a franchise about street racing and died in a fiery car crash. It is very sad, don't get me wrong, but it is just a fact. I think the best thing they could do would be to just move forward. It isn't disrespectful to, for lack of a better way, kill off Walker's character. If they still want to make the July 11th release date they are going to have to make some decisions fast.

Right now, all of us at Universal are dedicated to providing support to Paul’s immediate family and our extended Fast & Furious family of cast, crew and filmmakers.   At this time we feel it is our responsibility to shut down production on Fast & Furious 7 for a period of time so we can assess all options available to move forward with the franchise.  We are committed to keeping Fast & Furious fans informed, and we will provide further information to them when we have it.  Until then, we know they join us in mourning the passing of our dear friend Paul Walker.
Read more at http://collider.com/fast-furious-7-decisions-paul-walker/#8c7leVfTeSXGbsP8.99

Fast and Furious 7 delayed indefinitely

This isn't a surprise.

Due to the sudden death of Paul Walker which occurred yesterday, production of Fast and Furious 7 has been delayed indefinitely. Shooting was set to resume tomorrow in Atlanta, but Universal and the production crew have canceled the shoot and have not set a resume date at this time. The production wants to allow enough time for the cast and crew to grieve the loss of Walker as well as allowing time to complete inevitable re-writes to the script. Walker's character, Brian O'Conner, was a main character so obviously his role will need to be put in a different direction. The only Fast and Furious film Walker did not appear in was The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

However, director James Wan and Universal have not determined if the July 11, 2014 release date will need to be changed. Wan stated that more than half of the actual filming has already been completed and they were set to go to Abu Dhabi after filming in Atlanta wrapped. I personally won't be surprised if this movie is delayed by a couple months.

James Wan to direct Fast and Furious 7

Oh, I haven't laughed like this in a while.


James Wan (Saw, Insidious) has reportedly been selected to direct Fast and Furious 7 and is in talks to secure the spot due to the fact that Justin Lin is not returning to direct. If this happens he will have beaten out Jeff Wadlow, Harold Zwart, and Baltazar Kormakur for the director's chair.
Universal is planning for a release pretty soon (rumored for summer 2014) so this production needs to pick up the pace. So far we have Vin Diesel and Paul Walker returning. If Wan secures the role, which he probably will, the only thing he has going on right now is post-production for Insidious: Chapter 2 which is slated for a September 13, 2013 release. He also will have upcoming press for The Conjuring which is released on July 19, 2013.

I find it a bit odd that they are choosing a horror director for this movie, but I might actually see it. i haven't seen a Fast and Furious since Tokyo Drift... that shit.