And the hunt for the FAST AND FURIOUS 8 director comes to a close.
F. Gary Gray’s STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON pulled down a lot more change than the suits at Universal probably expected, and they’re rewarding the director with the 8th entry of the car franchise.
Now, it’s not official yet; apparently, Universal, Vin Diesel, and Neal Moritz are deciding between Gray and another unknown director, but Gray is the clear frontrunner for a number of reasons. One, the studio loves him for COMPTON. Two, he’s already worked with the three headliners (Diesel, The Rock, and Jason Statham) on A MAN APART, BE COOL, and THE ITALIAN JOB, respectively. Three, he’s got a ton of action experience, including the extended car chases in the aforementioned ITALIAN JOB remake. And four, he has a history with ethnically diverse casts, obviously one of the hallmarks of this franchise.
Plus, he seems like a way better choice than POINT BREAK director Ericson Core.
Whoever the other contender is, I doubt he/she has as much evidence in his favor as Gray, and I’m thinking he’s gonna be the man to kick off this concluding trilogy. The question then becomes how much input he will have on set; James Wan struggled to inject his own style into the mayhem of FURIOUS 7, and Uni, Diesel, and Moritz have a ton of vested interest in where this franchise goes. Still, Gray's movies are consistently effective enough that he will undoubtedly add, and not detract, from this 8th film, and with Diesel in his corner, he shouldn’t have a hard time sticking up to the suits if need be.
I’d keep an eye on Vin’s Facebook page for confirmation…
Posted by Vin Diesel on Monday, October 5, 2015
UPDATED (17:05): According to THR, there are actually two contenders besides Gray: the previously mentioned Louis Leterrier and THE GUEST's Adam Wingard. You also got Variety saying that THE SIGNAL director Will Eubank is in the running as well. But as interesting as it would be to see Wingard tackle a project of this scale, he's got DEATH NOTE coming up, and none of these other guys make as much logical sense as Gray. It still seems like it's very much his gig.
FAST & FURIOUS 8 is gonna knock you the fuck out on April 14th, 2017.
