Caffeinated Clint
It’s a poor time to be bringing it up, and clearly there’s more important things on the minds of the cast and crew at this time (most, understandably, are very shaken up and saddened), but nevertheless Universal Pictures have already held their first ‘What do we do with Fast & Furious 7, now that Paul Walker has left us?’ conversation.
While some sources say Walker had shot the majority of his scenes, and only had some ADR to do for the film, others say the actor still had some pivotal sequences to shoot – and was due to film those in little over a week’s time.
TMZ say, “Sources close to the production tell us most of the actors and crew were supposed to fly to Atlanta this weekend to resume filming on Tuesday … but they’re all expecting a halt in production.
Universal — the studio behind the movie — hasn’t announced when, or if, they’ll start shooting again … but we’re told some of the main stars are too distraught to work anyway.
According to our sources … most of this week’s scenes centered around Paul, so even if Universal were to go forward … it would need major rewrites.
Ultimately, the biggest hurdle to completing ‘FF7’ could be the emotions of the actors. As one source put it, “No one wants to even think about the movie. Period.”
Needles to say, and THR confirm it, “Fast & Furious 7” will be delayed – so that the scriptwriters and Wan can work out a way to make the film work, now that Walker has passed away, but it’s not known if the postponement in filming will affect the film’s release date of July 11.
THR says, “Director James Wan and Universal executives held a conference call Sunday morning to discuss the state of the film, whether rewrites would be necessary and how to proceed in a manner that would be respectful to Walker’s death. Insiders say a large part of the film had been shot, although in January, Walker and the rest of the Fast 7 team were scheduled to travel to Abu Dhabi to film additional scenes.”
The trade also brings up the touchy subject of marketing; being that Walker died in a horrible crash, something one might expect to see in a “Fast & Furious” movie, it’s going to tough to market the movie. The film’s theme and Walker’s appearance in it will, regardless of when it hits, be too raw for many.
A lot of hearts hurting right now.
