Paul Walker To Be Replaced By Body Doubles and CGI
The death of Paul Walker is one that saddened fans all over the world. The Fast and Furious franchise has a huge following, and the loss of this great actor left many devastated. As depressed as fans were though, many couldn't help but wonder what will happen for the next Fast and Furious installment, Fast and Furious 7.
The film already pushed its release date in December to April 10, 2015 after the death of Walker. After setting this new release date, Universal suggested that Paul Walker will still appear in the upcoming film, regardless of his untimely fate. “They have hired four actors with bodies very similar to Paul’s physique and they will be used for movement and as a base,” said a source to the New York Daily News. "Paul's face and voice will be on top using CGI." Walker is known for playing cop Brian O'Conner in all of the Fast and Furious installments except for Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift. Because he is the star in the upcoming film alongside costar Vin Diesel, this may be a task that is difficult to pull off.
James Wan is to direct this next chapter in the widely successful series, and Vin Diesel and Neal H. Moritz are returning to produce it as well. The filming was delayed after 40-year-old Walker died in a car crash on November 30 in Valencia, California, just outside of Los Angeles. The cast and crew was about halfway done with production of the next film in the series when the tragedy struck, with Walker's performance unfinished. Vin Diesel is now determined to make this the best one in the series, and I could only hope that they're all brought to even more success after his loss.
[via Variety]
Multiple Recent Deaths Puts Extra Pressure On Academy
The Oscars are a time in which not only great achievements of acting, directing, writing, and other filmmaking aspects are recognized, but also a period in which reflection takes place. The event is a cause for great celebration for the films that have been able to ascend above the other productions in the past year, and overall it can be looked upon as a fantastic gathering and honorable evening. While filmmakers may be so good at their craft that they may come across as invincible walks of life, the improbable fortune of death faces us all as humans, and the recent deaths of many cinematic greats has the Academy scrambling for the In Memoriam portion of the Academy Awards.
Early 2014 has brought a whole lot of misfortune to filmmakers. Just in the past two months Philip Seymour Hoffman, Shirley Temple, Tom Sherak, and Harold Ramis have left this earth for the great unknown. Many people are expecting their talents to be recognized in this highly regarded segment of the Oscars, and these names alone are not including other deaths from the past year such as James Gandolfini, Peter O’Toole, Deanna Durbin, Joan Fontaine, Roger Ebert, Ray Dolby, Ray Harryhausen, Paul Walker, and Elmore Leonard.
There is only so much time that can be dedicated to this portion of the awards ceremony, and the order of sequence in which these names will appear for viewers and even the simple fact of the matter of who will make the cut has people biting their nails. It's an emotional sequence of the ceremony, and a lot of people find that certain selections of applause and silence when names flash on the screen make it unfair and almost like a celebrity popularity contest. While the distribution of the little golden statues should be of utmost importance for the Academy, it seems that these deadlines may be the cause of controversy with the awards handed out this year.
[via Variety]
R.I.P. Paul Walker (9/12/1973 - 11/30/2013)
Over the weekend, Fast & Furious star Paul Walker died in a car crash in Los Angeles. The actor, aged 40, was shooting the highly anticipated Fast & Furious 7 in recent months, although the production was on a holiday break at the time of the accident. Many of his co-stars turned to social media to express their condolences to his family and their love and praise for him and his work.
As one of the core actors of the Fast & Furious franchise alongside Vin Diesel, Walker's career was defined by Fast & Furious as it, in turn, defined Fast & Furious, as well. Currently, production on the James Wan-directed Fast & Furious 7 is postponed indefinitely until Universal and Wan can think up a proper way to continue the franchise while still paying proper respect to Walker's Brian O'Conner character.
I've sung the praises of this summer's Fast & Furious 6 in my first film review for Ruby Hornet, and a part of what made the film so entertaining was the central theme of family and friendship, even if it was drilled to near exaggeration throughout the film. With one of its primary actors gone, it will be difficult to carry the tone in light of the weekend's tragedy.
[via Yahoo! Movies, via Collider]