“Fast & Furious 8” is still more than a year and a half away but lead star Vin Diesel has already been talking about the movie’s marketing and promotions campaign recently.
During the recently concluded Teen Choice Awards on August 16, Vin Diesel delivered a loving tribute to his late friend, Paul Walker, and also thanked his teenage daughter, Meadow, for inspiring them during the production of the very successful “Fast & Furious 7,” details Cinema Blend.
“Fast & Furious 7” is this year’s second most successful film, next only to “Jurassic World.” The movie is now fifth in the list of the highest-grossing movies of all time.
During the same speech, Diesel referred to the upcoming eighth installment of the movie franchise as “Fast 8,” which is a deviation from the short title of the previous film, which has been referred to as “Furious 7.”
Apparently, “Fast 8” will be the one to be used during the marketing and promotions of the movie about a year from today given that the film already has a playdate of April 14, 2017.
Many critics believe that the movie should have stick with its previous plan of calling the upcoming movie “F8,” which Vin Diesel alluded to in previous interviews. “F8” would have been unique and perfect since it sounds like ‘fate’ which is what destiny has charted for the movie franchise.
Reports have it that there is a possibility that the movie will both use “Fast 8” and “F8” during the marketing and promotions campaign of the movie a year from today.
Rumored new cast
There have been plenty of rumors about the new cast members of the upcoming “Fast & Furious 8.” But the more pronounced of those rumors are the prospects of three new female stars joining the movie.
First, there is Eva Mendes, who was reportedly coming back to the franchise to reprise her role as Customs agent Monica Fuentes, a character last seen in “Fast Five” and “2 Fast 2 Furious.”
Then there is British actress Dame Helen Mirren, who is pretty much confirmed to play the role of villainess and shall be responsible for the release from prison of Deckard Shaw, previously played in “Fast & Furious 7” by Jason Statham.
The third is Ruby Rose of “Orange is the New Black.” However, there is a new rumor of late indicating that English fashion model and singer Cara Delevigne might also be casted in the movie, cites the Gospel Herald.
However, there is neither a confirmation of such from either Delevigne or the producers as of yet, plus the fact that the rumor is kind of fresh so it should be taken with a fine grain of salt.
Screenplay is the priority
While talks have been going around on who the returning and new cast members would be, what is clear at this point is that the film still does not have a confirmed director.
While James Wan took the franchise to new heights by helming “Fast & Furious 7” which now stands as the fifth highest-grossing movie of all time, it seems that his engagement was just a one-shot deal. Reports have it that Wan will go back to directing what he does best and that is directing horror movies including “Saw” and the “Insidious” series.
There were also rumors that Justin Lin will be back to take on the director’s chair for “Fast & Furious 8” as much as he did in four other films of the franchise beginning with the third to the sixth movie.
However, producer Neal Moritz stated that they are still looking forward to the completion of the writing of the movie script before they hire a new director for the movie.
Moritz explained that they have decided to take a different path in the movie’s development process this time around as they would wait for the availability of the screenplay first before they bring in a director.