As you read this, Universal Studios should be about halfway through filming the sequel to Summer 2001's monster street racing hit "The Fast and The Furious." Cleverly titled "The Fast and The Furious 2," this is what we know about the movie so far.
First, the PR machinery for the production hasn't fully ramped up yet. That means what we know is from official sources, semi-official sources and some guys with a digital camera who wandered into the shop where the cars are being built. A lot may change as the movie goes into production.
Second, Vin Diesel is gone. After asking for a reported $20 million to do the sequel, Diesel was deemed too expensive by the people who write checks at Universal and therefore he's out. And with Diesel went director Rob Cohen. Don't feel sorry for them though, since their second effort together, this past summer's "XXX" was another huge hit and they're already working on a big money sequel to that one, too.
Returning to the film is blue-eyed, blond-haired dreamboat Paul Walker as Officer O'Connor. You might remember him from the first movie. You might not. The script by writers Derek Haas and Michael Brandt has Officer O'Connor thrown off the LAPD in disgrace and exiled to Miami. It's there that he's recruited back into law enforcement to once again go undercover in the street racing world, this time to stop some sort of drug. Haas and Brandt wrote a TV movie last year called "Invincible," but we don't know about their work otherwise. Sounds to us like they've been watching old episodes of "Miami Vice," however. Hired to direct the new film is John Singleton, who rose to prominence with 1991's "Boyz N The Hood" and also directed the remake of "Shaft," which was released in 2000. He's bringing back Ja Rule as Edwin Bishop and has added singer Tyrese as O'Connor's partner. We hear there will be another female cop aboard too. Best guess is that said female cop will be nice to look at and become romantically involved with at least one of the cops.
Our real interest lies in the cars however, and they're going together at a shop called Circlescan 4D in El Segundo, Calif. Operated by noted car builder Eddie Paul, the shop is rumored to be whacking together about 77 cars for the new film, including four Honda S2000s, five Acura NSXs, some Toyota MR2 Spyders, four orange Toyota Supras and six or seven red Mazda RX-7s like that seen in the original film, some Chevy Corvettes, a couple BMW 3-Series coupes and a few Opel Speedsters (mid-engine cars which aren't sold in the United States). These cars will be the true stars of the film, but the movie's Technical Consultant also organized open casting calls in L.A. and Florida for privately owned background vehicles, and some that may be fully featured.
The photos we have of the cars going together at Circlescan 4D are from a clandestine source that insists on anonymity. The photos are unauthorized, but they accurately show work on the cars as it stood in late July or early August in anticipation of the start of filming in September. Except for that one S2000, we have no photos of the final new cars. But what's going on is pretty obvious.
It's known that the producers approached a lot of manufacturers about featuring their products in the film. Honda turned them down outright, Ford expressed some interest, but that the company that is rumored to have signed up for the full sponsorship package is Mitsubishi. So, expect some Eclipses and Evo VIIs to feature prominently in the film and for Mitsubishi to support the opening of the film next summer with marketing support and probably a sweepstakes of some sort.
Will this new movie be good? Who knows? But they're already talking about "The Fast & The Furious 3" over at Universal.