New ‘Furious’ Director Wants Something Different

The Fast & Furious series continues to move forward, with ‘Furious 8’ a definite thing.  Sidequels oo, probably.  The director for the next movie is F. Gary Gray, director of The Negotiator and The Italian Job (2003).  I can see why the latter, an underrated and unfairly attacked movie, might have gotten him the job.  It was basically a superior version of what the last few ‘Furious’ movies were trying to be.  He spoke of the movie this week.

“[The meeting] was great. I went to [Vin’s] home and it was a reunion, cause I had already directed a movie with him earlier in my career, 15 years ago or so. We were both really excited to get back together and do it again. We talked about all of the Fast movies up to this point, and where could we go. I think he was really happy with the vision I have for the franchise and I was really happy about where he sees not only his character going but the franchise itself, because he’s a producer as well. So it was all love. Definitely all love.”

He was also asked by Collider what main focus for the film will be on expanding the scope of the action set pieces or diving deeper into the characters, and the filmmaker cited Star Wars: The Force Awakens as an influence:

“It’s a combination of both. When you look at someone like J.J. Abrams who gives you the spectacle and great action set pieces but also gives you character and plotting and narrative, I think it’s my job—and my intention—to do both. You amp up everything, you work on the performances, you work on the story, you work on the action; it’s just not one thing. Hopefully I bring more to it, that’s part of the point is to bring something different to the franchise while still satisfying what the fans want.”