The fifth film in the “Fast and the Furious” franchise — “Fast Five” — earned $625 million worldwide, dwarfing the grosses of the previous films in the series. Star/producer Vin Diesel would be crazy not to initiate further films (especially since “Fast Five” ended with a startling cliffhanger), and Universal seems more than up to the challenge. In the tradition of “Back to the Future” 2 and 3, the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, and the next two “Transformers” installments, the sixth and seventh film (“Fast Six”? “Fast and Furious 7”?) will almost certainly be shot back-to-back. This will save money on production, and make for what we hope to be one heck of an epic storyline (The Rock was Vin’s father all along!).
As for the rest of this week’s list…
October 26, 2011
1. “Fast and Furious” Parts 6 and 7 (Last week: Not ranked)
Parts 6 and 7 will likely be shot back-to-back. Vin Diesel, director Justin Lin and screenwriter Chris Morgan are returning. So are lots of cars.
2. “The Dark Knight Rises” (Last week: No. 3)
AMC confirms — then redacts — that Warner will be previewing 6 minutes of Christopher Nolan’s final Batman film before IMAX screenings of “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.” Read between the lines, man — it’s happening.
3. “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn” (Last week: No. 2)
Edward sweeping Bella off her feet in Christina Perri’s new “A Thousand Years” video = Robert Pattinson sweeping planet Earth off its feet.
4. “Man of Steel” (Last week: No. 6)
Whoa. Henry Cavill doesn’t even need a costume to look like Superman. Dude is ripped.
5. “Django Unchained” (Last week: Not ranked)
Finally — a female is added to the cast! Kerry Washington joins Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx, Kurt Russell, Don Jonson and Samuel L. Jackson.
6. “The Amazing Spider-Man” (Last week: Not ranked)
Is this what Rhys Ifans’ The Lizard will sound like? Wear some earplugs, Spidey.
7. “The Adventures of Tintin” (Last week: No. 7)
To no one’s surprise, Peter Jackson has announced he’ll be directing Part 2. Now release part 1 in the U.S. already!
8. “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” (Last week: Not ranked)
Read in Roadblock voice: I don’t know what you’ve been told, but the new “G.I. Joe” is lookin’ mighty bold. Get a better look at Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as the character in his self-shot on-set video.
9. “The Stand” (Last week: Not ranked)
Whether it ends up being made by the “Harry Potter” team or Ben “The Town” Affleck, WB is obviously putting a lot of muscle into its Stephen King adaptation.
10. “The Hobbit” (Last week: Not ranked)
While the two-part prequel is currently filing in N.Z., the four Hobbits from “The Lord of the Rings” reunited after ten years for Empire Magazine.
11. “Battlestar Galactica” (Last week: Not ranked)
Will the third time be a charm (well, more of a charm) for the franchise? Bryan Singer and new writer John Orloff are counting on it.
12. Joss Whedon (Last week: Not ranked)
Tricksy Hobbit. After wrapping “The Avengers,” the director made a new version of Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” in 12 days…and kept it a secret. No small feat in the age of Twitter.
13. “Akira” (Last week: Not ranked)
Neo-Tokyo is about to explode…again. For real this time.
14. “Shame” (Last week: Not ranked)
Fox Searchlight is boldly releasing the critically acclaimed film with its NC-17-rated content (AKA all the dirty bits) intact.
15. “The Three Musketeers” (Last week: Not ranked)
Just kidding, although in a parallel universe (ie: Milla Jovovich’s head), the film is a huge smash.
Movie Power Rankings appears weekly on HitFix. See last week’s rankings here.