Caffeinated Clint
“Fast & Furious 7” was mid-way through it’s shooting schedule when Paul Walker was tragically killed last November. As such, the production was put on hold while the filmmakers – specifically director James Wan, writer Chris Morgan, and the brass at Universal – reworked the script in light of the sad loss.
Seems the production is now back on-track, with the script tweaked, and engines ready to roar again on what’ll likely be as much of a film as it will be a love letter to the late Walker.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, production recommences on the film in April 1. That gives the production a year to get the movie done in time for its release date on April 10, 2015.
Cast and crew will regroup in Atlanta, kicking off what will likely be six to eight weeks of shooting. It’s believed most cast-members, including Kurt Russell, are returning.
Walker’s character Brian O’Conner won’t apparently be ‘killed off’ in the movie, he’ll be ‘retired’.
A while back, I read an early draft of the film- which, by the way, reads terrific – and it opened with a really funny pre-credit sequence. O’Conner, now essentially retired from the world of heists and hooning-around, was a ‘family man’ on ‘dad duty’ – driving his little one to elementary school in, no less, a big old family wagon. Life had clearly changed for O’Conner a lot since the last movie (“Fast & Furious 6”) – but was he happy? was this the life he longed for, after getting up to so much mischief – albeit fun mischief – over the past few years? I’m guessing the answer is “it doesn’t matter, it’s safer for Brian to be playing Dad, than on the road with Dom and the boys now.” And that’s likely how they’ve written him out.
Look for the ‘family wagon’ to drive off into the L.A sunset, come April, 2015.
