It is being rumored that the producers of Fast and Furious 8 which is scheduled to be released on April 14, 2017, are facing problems regarding the matter of appointing a director for the film. It was stated in a report by a renowned website that the immensely popular movie franchise is having trouble in finding the right person to direct its next installment.
It was reported that the studio wanted James Wan who directed Furious 7, to be the director of Fast and Furious 8 too. James Wan had earlier signed a contract with the studio which made him bound to direct the eighth and the ninth films of the franchise.
However, Wan informed the studio just before the end of production of Furious 7 that he won’t be able to direct Fast and Furious 8 at the moment because he intended on taking up the job of directing The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Poltergeist as his next movie.
The studio agreed to Wan’s decision in the hope of bringing in Justin Liu in his place. Justin Liu had earlier directed previous installments of the franchise – The Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift and Fast and Furious 6. Justin informed the studio that he had no plans regarding heading back to Universal Pictures at the moment and decided to direct Star Trek Beyond instead of Fast and Furious 8.
Yet again the studio found itself in a sticky situation and finding no other way out of it, the studio offered “a decent sum” to James Wan in the hope of persuading him to direct Fast and Furious 8 right away.
However, the offer was turned down by Wan. According to reports the director was burnt out after directing Furious 7. The incident of unfortunate death of Paul Walker extended the production of the film by two years. Parts of the script had to be rewritten and scenes had to be reshot as a result of the unfortunate incident.
All of this had reportedly taken a toll on the film’s director who said that he felt exhausted after directing the film.
Rumors also have it that one of the lead actors of the film; Vin Diesel has become quite difficult to work with as of late.
It was rumored that in the recent installments, Diesel involved himself in the writing process to an extent which would become frustrating for everyone. He would question minor details regarding action sequences which would result in stalling of the whole process.
Representatives of Diesel suggest otherwise, according to them the actor being a problem on the sets is completely a false accusation and a statements from Wan’s men mentioned that there was no unusual tension between the actor and the director on the movie sets.
A statement from Universal stated that the cast and crew of the film enjoyed working with James Wan on Furious 7 but unfortunately he is not available to direct Fast and Furious 8 due to conflict in schedule with The Conjuring 2. It also said that the company is vigorously searching for the right person to fill in the director’s chair for the next movie of the franchise.
In other news regarding the movie, it is being rumored that Angelina Jolie has been approached by the film-makers to be a part of the eighth installment of the popular movie franchise. It was reported by Yibada that the Oscar winning actress has been approached to play the role of a villain in Fast and Furious 8.