The latest installment of the Fast and Furious franchise will still be made, despite the unexpected death of its star, Paul Walker.
The big-budget film had been on a production break over the Thanksgiving weekend, on the Saturday of which Walker died in a car crash. The 40-year-old was killed as a passenger in a Porsche which hit a lamppost and burst into flames in Los Angeles.
NEWS: Paul Walker, 40, dies in car crash
Walker was due to return to the film set in Atlanta, with fellow cast members Vin Deisel and Dwayne Johnson, the next day to resume shooting. However, James Wan, the film's director and executives from Universal Studios held a conference call on Sunday morning to discuss how they would continue with Fast and Furious 7 in a way which would be respectful to Walker's death. According to The Hollywood Reporter, filming may begin again on Monday or Tuesday.
Walker was playing Brian O'Conner, a former criminal-turned-policeman, in Fast and Furious 7, a character he had portrayed in the previous six Fast and Furious films. Although most of the filming had taken place for the film, the cast and crew were set to finish off shooting in Abu Dhabi in January.
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Fast and Furious 7 was due to be released in American cinemas on July 11 2014. The studio declined to comment on its future, but said on Saturday that "all of us at Universal are heartbroken. Paul was truly one of the most beloved and respected members of our studio family for 14 years, and this loss is devastating to us, to everyone involved with the Fast and Furious films, and to countless fans."
