‘Fast & Furious 7’ production will proceed despite Paul Walker’s death, report says

The seventh installment of the Fast & Furious series may not have been entirely derailed by star Paul Walker’s sudden death yesterday. Sources have apparently told The Hollywood Reporter that although production has been delayed, Universal executives and director James Wan met this morning to discuss how to proceed with the film while being respectful of Walker’s death. The film was set for a release date of July 11th, but TMZ has reported that Walker was supposed to film several “key scenes” this week, and that other cast members are too distraught to return to the set any time soon. The Hollywood Reporter’s sources also say that Walker and others were scheduled to shoot more scenes, though they say that a large part of the film had already been shot.

Wan and others, sources say, will be discussing the prospect of rewrites to help save the film. Some of these, obviously, would involve writing Walker out of missing scenes, but filmmakers will also have to deal with the fact that the circumstance of his death — a car crash — makes the film’s subject matter much more sensitive. Even if Fast 7 is recovered, the franchise’s future prospects look grim right now. The series has kept going over six installments because of its increasingly elaborate driving stunts and a core cast of characters including Vin Diesel and Walker himself (who has appeared in all but one movie), and Walker’s absence would leave a glaring hole in any attempt at aFast 8.