There are some concrete details on "Fast and Furious " already! The latest tidbit is that it will be shooting on Cuba. If this pushes through, the movie would be the first significant production ever to shoot on the island.
It has only been a little over a year since President Obama decided that America's ties with Cuba should be reestablished. Since then, restrictions on Americans wanting to travel to the island have considerably eased. With an American Embassy established on the island for the first time in 50 years, it comes as no surprise that more movie studios would want to shoot there.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Universal Pictures just might be the first to take on this venture. A statement from the studio confirmed that "Fast and Furious 8" might be shot there, provided that Universal Pictures would be able to get the approval from the United States and Cuban governments.
Apart from this latest report, there were countless speculations on whether Paul Walker's character O'Connor would still make an appearance on this 8th installment. Paul Walker died in the middle of "Fast and Furious 7" shoot two years ago, and the management had to be quite creative and strategic just to pull the movie through with one of the principal cast members gone.
Through a combination of Paul's old footage, scans of Paul's brothers Cody and Caleb, as well as that of John Brotherton, who has Paul's build, the movie successfully pulled through. With "Fast & Furious 8," nothing seems to clear set yet.
According to Xpose, NBC Universal Vice Chairman Ron Meyer gave quite a vague answer as to whether O'Connor will be part of the film. On the one hand, he said Paul will not be on the movie. On the other hand, he also stated that Paul will be represented in "some form or another." Meyer said that they will indeed not pull the same tricks they did before in the seventh installment to have O'Connor's character in the movie. "He won't be in the film as a performer, as an actor, the way we did it last time," Meyer said about Paul.
Vin Diesel also shared some information on "Fast & Furious 8." He said that with director Gary Grey now taking over, fans should expect the movie and the characters to be "dark."
