Along with returning to play Dominic Toretto, Vin Diesel (Furious 7) may hop into the director’s chair for Furious 8, according to Deadline. As with most rumors revolved around the XXX actor, this stemmed from post on his Facebook page.
In the post, Diesel says he and long-time series director Justin Lin (Fast Five) have discussed their plans for final trilogy in the franchise but with Lin committed to the third Star Trek film, Universal will have to find a new director for at least the first film in the next series. Diesel has been known to have producing and directing aspirations. Universal famously gave him the rights to the Riddick franchise in exchange for his appearance at the end of Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift after test audiences wanted the film to connect to the character from previous entries in the series. Diesel also directed the short Los Bandoleros that brought back the franchise’s original characters and led into the opening scene of the series’ fourth film Fast and Furious.
It is no secret that my good friend Justin and I have been very intensely discussing the trilogy, as we have dreamed it…
Posted by Vin Diesel on Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Diesel (and the late Paul Walker) wanted to have the original’s director, Rob Cohen (The Boy Next Door), return to the franchise at some point. He hasn’t proven himself with blockbuster in some time, however, and according to Deadline, Universal is reportedly not interested in Cohen returning to the franchise. The studio is supposedly interested in Ericson Core (Point Break) or Louis Leterrier (Clash of the Titans) possibly taking the job.
We’ll have more on the highly anticipated sequel as it develops.
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