When you have a franchise that rakes in money as successfully as The Fast and the Furious, you'd assume that by the time one movie came out, you'd already have one in the chamber, but apparently that's not the case with the seventh and eighth films in the series. Furious 7 just hit theaters this past weekend, but according to reports, Fast & Furious 8 is nowhere near even beginning production. Yikes! What's the hold up, guys? You don't like making $392.3 million in your opening weekend? In the words of producer Neal Moritz, speaking to The Hollywood Reporter:
Honestly, we're just bathing in the success of this. We'll probably get together in a week or so to talk.
Uh, OK! Take your time I guess! It's just that I've heard momentum factors into situations like this, in that people don't like to wait around a long time for a sequel. It's why series like The Hunger Games and Lord of the Rings film all at once so they can schedule out their films way in advance and only make people wait about a year in between. That seems to be the perfect amount of time to keep people at a medium to frantic level of good buzz. But from where I sit, there are a lot of obstacles standing in the way of completion of the next movie, and I can't help but be stressed out that nothing's been put in motion.
Here are just a few of the reasons that Fast 8 production has a... ahem... need for speed. (I'll show myself out.)
There's No Script
Apparently this isn't that big of an issue, because in previous iterations, what usually happens is they set a release date first and then work backward from there, deciding what action scenes they want and then tying them together with the plot, but still! You'd be surprised how hard it is to make a movie without a script. (No you wouldn't.)
There's No Release Date
Please see above for why this is almost a bigger deal than them not having a script.
There's No Director
Originally, Furious 7's director James Wan had agreed to do two movies when he signed on, but after Paul Walker's tragic death during filming immeasurably complicated the process, he was released to go work on different projects, reports THR. There's a possibility that he may be free to begin production in October, and of course producers could choose another director, but there's no current plan in place either way.
They've Promised Three More Films
I didn't realize this, but apparently the chairman of Universal, Donna Langley, promised last year that there would ultimately be 10 films in this franchise. So depending on how many decades we want these movies to span — they started in 2001 — we should probably get a move on.
It Has To Raise The Stakes
Much like the next Mission Impossible movie strapping Tom Cruise to the outside of a plane to outdo any stunts they pulled in the last movie, Furious producers are very aware that they need to up the ante with each successive film. Here's producer Moritz again:
[The story] is going to have to be something enticing for all of us. It has to be as good as or better [than Furious 7].
Lotta pressure.
The Cast Is In Demand
Here's the thing Universal, the success of all these movies has made your stars viable box office draws, and since many of the leads have come to the end of their contracts, their participation in future films is going to have to be negotiated. Let's get that process started, no??
The Rock Isn't Locked In
And probably the biggest example of the problem I described above is Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who works on a movie-by-movie basis and can walk away any time.
Eek! Anyone else get a fire lit under their ass from all that? Here's hoping it did the trick for producers, because I'm sweating over here!
Images: Universal Pictures; giphy (7)
