14 DAY TRIAL // Production on “Fast & Furious 7,” which was scheduled to come out in July 2014, has been shut down “indefinitely” to allow family, friends, mates, and the crew to mourn the passing of Paul Walker, one of the leading actors, who died last weekend in a fiery car crash outside Los Angeles.
In a statement released by Universal to Gossip Cop, producers hint at their intention to continue with the ever-so-successful film franchise but only if they can come up with a way of doing so that would not come across as offensive or insensitive after Walker’s death.
For the time being, though, the production is halted indefinitely.
“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,” Universal says.
“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,” adds the movie studio.
The announcement was expected, especially since it was widely known that, while production was halfway, Paul was yet to shoot most of his big scenes, which was supposed to happen right after a short Thanksgiving break.
Two theories now being circulated online are that either producers will ask for rewrites and reshoots that would allow Walker’s character an exit, or they will opt to have the entire movie scrapped and replaced with a complete reboot, that would leave his character out altogether.
The latter would probably infuriate fans because it would seem disrespectful in a way to never see his final role. The former would probably be perceived less like it, especially if producers came up with a good “exit.”
Of course, the third option would be to just drop the “Fast & Furious” franchise completely and call it a day, but there’s too much money involved in it to actually be a solid one. Regardless of what Universal bosses decide about the fate of the franchise, massive delays are to be expected in the release schedule.