Twitch is reporting a rumor pegging Jason Statham as entering into “preliminary conversations” to explore the possibility of joining the Fast and the Furious franchise either in film six, seven or both. I don’t know why exactly, but this just doesn’t seem to fit for me.
Statham’s action star persona is primarily as a blunt-force instrument and with Vin Diesel already a part of the cast and now Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, I’d say that kind of character is pretty much taken care of. Adding Statham would be to essentially turn the franchise into another Expendables, and to be honest, one of the things I didn’t really like about Fast Five was the lack of interaction we had with the characters I’d grown to really like over the first four films. I don’t need another name brand taking away even more screen time.
Twitch isn’t done there, however, as the site is also reporting Universal is considering shooting Fast and the Furious 6 and 7 back-to-back in Europe throughout 2012.
Now this makes sense, especially when you consider Univeral’s hopes of reviving the Terminator franchise and the fact Fast director Justin Lin has been attached to a fifth Terminator film for some time. Only recently did he have to bail as a result of scheduling conflicts with the Fast franchise.
When last discussed, Ellison hadn’t hired a screenwriter for the Terminator 5 project, but if a Fast schedule could be figured out and if Lin was able to film 6 and 7 at once, he could free up the next couple of years to dedicate solely to the Terminator franchise. And if that was a case, the project could finally begin moving forward with a clear direction.
As of now, the plan is to have Fast Six in theaters on May 24, 2013, beyond that things are up in the air.
