This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, given that both Vin Diesel and Paul Walker have dropped heavy hints in the past about writer Chris Morgan having pitched ideas for both the fifth and sixth outings in the turbocharged, sweat-stained Fast & Furious franchise. But Universal has just officially put the pedal to the metal on work for the film, signing Morgan to a production deal that includes his scripting services.
If you follow any of Team Empire on Twitter, you’ll know that we got a look at the fifth film, which hits UK cinemas on 21 April, days before it even screeches into US theatres, and that it’s another madcap chunk of fast cars, fast women and CG-enhanced action, with Diesel and Walker growling at Dwayne Johnson’s tough federal agent in between stunts and punch-ups.
But while you could snarkily argue that the films succeed more often despite the script than because of it, Morgan has helped three of the franchise's efforts leave the starting grid alongside regular director Justin Lin. So it’s hardly shocking that the studio might want to keep him around.
He’s now locked into a two-year deal that will see him producing other films alongside writing jobs. He’s also scribbled work on Wanted and 47 Ronin and is developing a film based on the monster-heavy Japanese game Bakugan.
"I don't want to be the guy who gets a vanity production deal and does nothing," Morgan tells the Hollywood Reporter. "I want to be the guy who goes out there and busts my ass and fixes broken stories and finds material to bring back – quite frankly, as a reward to the studio that has worked with me for so long. We have a very effective partnership, and we want to get some big movies off the ground." We assume he said the bit about fixing broken stories with a straight face.
So while Fast Six (or whatever it ends up being called) isn’t yet a reality, and will only start to really spin its wheels once the box office results from the fifth flick start to appear, you can be fairly certain that it’ll happen. We predict shouting, sweating and burned rubber aplenty. Oh, and if you hang around for a special bonus scene during the credits of this latest instalment, you'll get a clue as to the cast and the plot of number six.