Just last week, Vin Diesel was using his Facebook foghorn to counter reports that the eighth Fast & Furious entry was having trouble locking down a director. Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, there are several candidates racing towards the finish line, with Louis Leterrier, F. Gary Gray and Adam Wingard all in contention{
Deadline also throws in The Signal**’s William Eubank, though THR says his name came up earlier in the search, so he may already have dropped out.
Wingard, who made** You’re Next **and The Guest, seems the most interesting of the three main contenders, especially given his background in horror and thrillers, which would make him the second director after James Wan to jump from scares to screeching tyres. He could certainly bring his own style to the film, though we do wonder if he’s better off doing just that, and not going the studio franchise route.
Leterrier is certainly more of an action man, with Transporter 2, The Incredible Hulk, Clash Of The Titans and Now You See Me under his belt already, and Sacha Baron Cohen action comedy Grimsby in the editing room. He’s shown a willingness to stretch himself beyond just the Luc Besson school of slam-bang shoot ‘em ups, so could be a viable fit for the Fast franchise. As for Gray, he’s riding high at Universal after the success of Straight Outta Compton, and has action experience with The Italian Job and A Man Apart, which happened to star one V. Diesel. So his prior ability to wrangle the Diesel man would definitely be useful.
Quite how they’ll figure out which – if any – of these three would get the job is a mystery, though we really want to imagine either a go-kart race or an arm wrestling competition, with the winner taking on Vin. Either way, they’re reportedly meeting Diesel this week, so we might have a decision soon from the actor/producer and Universal boss Donna Langley. Or none of them will score the gig, and the hunt will continue. But with a 2017 release date already pencilled in, things need to start moving.