Last week,Fast & Furiousfranchise starVin Dieselrevealed that adirectorwill be announced soon forFast & Furious 8.Furious 7directorJames Wanhas moved on to directThe Conjuring: The Enfield Poltergeist, andJustin Lin, who directed the last fourFast & Furiousmovies before that, is currently shootingStar Trek Beyond. Today,Varietyreports that Universal Pictures has narrowed their directorial choice down to four candidates,F. Gary Gray,Adam Wingard,Louis Leterrierand William Eubank.
The report claims that none of these four filmmakers have emerged as the front runner yet, but the studio is reportedly close to making their final decision.Varietyalso reports that there is no truth to rumors thatVin Dieselmay be in the mix to directFast & Furious 8himself. The actor did reveal over the weekend that he wantsRob Cohen, who directed the very firstThe Fast and the Furiousmovie back in 2001, to return forFast & Furious 8, but it isn’t known if that will happen since he isn’t on this short list.
Production onFast & Furious 8isn’t expected to begin until next spring, but preparations will reportedly start in late October, so the studio hopes to lock down a filmmaker by then.Vin Diesel’s statement from this weekend revealed that “the writer” will be delivering the script in a few weeks, but it still isn’t known who this writer is.Chris Morgan, who wroteThe Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift,Fast & Furious,Fast Five,Fast & Furious 6andFurious 7, is currently shepherding Universal Pictures' shared monsters universe withAlex Kurtzman, so it isn’t known if he has had time to writerFast & Furious 8as well.
Vin Dieselrevealed onJimmy Kimmel Live!this March thatFurious 7starts a new trilogy, and thatFast & Furious 8will be set in New York City. The actor/producer also teased thatKurt Russell’s character, Mr. Nobody, will play an important role inFast & Furious 8.Dwayne JohnsonandJason Stathamhave also confirmed that they’ll be back as Hobbs and Ian Shaw.2 Fast 2 FuriousstarEva Mendesmay also return as U.S. Customs agent Monica Fuentes. Other franchise stars such asMichelle Rodriguez,Jordana Brewster,Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges,Elsa PatakyandLucas Blackare expected to return as well.
F. Gary Grayis coming off of Universal’s smash-hit biopicStraight Outta Compton, which has made $168 million domestic from a $28 million budget. He is also reportedly in contention to direct Marvel’sBlack Panther. He directedVin Dieselin the 2003 action thrillerA Man Apart.Adam Wingarddirected last year’s critically-acclaimed thrillerThe Guest, and he is expected to filmDeath Notenext spring, which could provide a scheduling conflict forFast & Furious 8.Louis Leterrier’s next filmGrimsbyhits theaters next March, starringSacha Baron CohenandMark Strong. William Eubank is the least-known of the filmmakers on this list, with just two feature credits to his name, 2011’s Love and last year’sThe Signal, which starredBrenton Thwaites,Olivia CookeandLaurence Fishburne.
