FURIOUS 8: Louis Leterrier and POINT BREAK Remake Helmer Being Considered To Direct
This morning, we wrote about how Vin Diesel wanted The Fast and The Furious director Rob Cohen to return to direct the upcoming Furious 8 after Justin Lin and James Wan moved on to other projects, but we failed to mention how that same Facebook post indicated that Diesel's mother suggested he direct the movie himself. Is that a real possibility? Well, it would certainly be a hell of a jump for him, but if they decided that they wanted to severely scale the franchise down all the way back to its small-scale racing roots instead of trying to top the insanity Wan achieved with Furious 7, there's a chance he could pull it off. After all, Diesel did direct a short film set in the Fast universe called Los Bandoleros:
But if he ends up not stepping behind the camera, Deadline reports that Louis Leterrier (The Incredible Hulk, Now You See Me, The Transporter 2) and Point Break remake director Ericson Core (Invincible) are "possibly" being looked at for the director's chair. (How someone is "possibly" being looked at, I have no idea. You're being considered for the job, or you're not. What the hell, Deadline?)
If this report is true, Leterrier makes a bit of sense considering he's worked with Universal a bunch of times before, but I don't know if he has the right kind of style for this franchise. Core might be a better fit. He was the cinematographer of the original The Fast and The Furious movie, and his remake of Point Break looks like it has the right mixture of self-aware stupidity and insane stunts that could transfer well to this franchise. (Though it would be really bizarre if he ended up getting the gig, considering how the original Furious movie was essentially a beat for beat remake of the original Point Break...talk about the snake eating its tail.)
Who do you want to see direct Furious 8?