‘Fast & Furious 8,’ anyone?

WALKER. Unexpected demise.

“Fast & Furious 7” scored a “monster” hit at the box office on its recent first week of release, “shocking” other film producers, because its production budget was much smaller than the mega-millions spent on comparable blockbusters of the sci-fi or superhero sort. What was it about the film that made it such a “sleeper” winner?

First, it’s the latest in the already popular, “Fast and Furious” film franchise, which means that it has “locked in” a loyal audience of car and action buffs.

But, the new film grossed much more than previous editions in the franchise, so there must have been a “unique selling proposition” to it to explain all those additional millions in added income. What could it have been?

Simply put, one of its lead stars, Paul Walker, died in a racing car crash before the movie’s shoot was completed, and his unexpected demise put fans in mourning and watching mode, so many more of them made it a point to watch the film as a tribute to their fallen fave.

Aside from this especially tragic draw, the production made the film’s delayed screening a major event for film buffs, with the production’s other stars going out of their way to express their personal sense of loss and appreciation for Walker’s many sterling attributes.

Huge income

That may have struck some observers as a bit too manipulative, but the “personal” ploy worked, resulting in the movie’s exceptionally huge income.

Beyond that exploitative “hook,” however, the film itself evinces elements that helped make it a huge hit—led by far-out and seemingly impossible action concepts, capers and gimmicks that the production was able to pull off with the prodigious and essential help of new digital filmmaking capabilities.

Some of those stupendous action conceits include a female character transferring from one car to another as both vehicles are running at top speed, a lone shooter downing a seemingly invincible helicopter, and a $3- million car “flying” in the air through three adjoining skyscrapers in Dubai!

Yes, all of those visual showstoppers are “impossible,” but filmic prestidigitation makes them happen, to everyone’s thrilled amazement!

Put all of these plus factors together, and you get “Fast & Furious 7’s” extraordinary achievement at the box office. Small wonder, then, that film buffs and the movie’s producers are eager to try to come up with “Fast & Furious 8”—despite the fact that Walker is no longer around to star in it. How can this cinematic pipe dream happen?

It should be noted that, to complete filming on Walker’s remaining scenes in “FF7,” the production resorted to the use of a lookalike (the late actor’s brother) and some digitized embellishments, to boot.

Can all that “work” for an entirely new film, with Walker’s character still playing a full-length stellar role? That’ll take a lot more doing—but, when there are gazillions of dollars to be made, we can expect the film’s producers to give it one huge heck of a try!