If I could, I would sit in on every single creative meeting between F. Gary Gray and Vin Diesel regarding the next film in the Fast & Furious Saga, as they're calling it now in press releases. Those are some strong personalities, and Disel is, rightfully, very possessive of the movies.
Universal sent out a quick press release late last night announcing that Fast & Furious 9 will be in theaters on Friday, April 19, 2019, with the tenth film set for Friday, April 2, 2021.
Think about that. It's February of 2016 right now, and they're already staking out who owns what weekends in April of 2021. Five years away. It is very strange watching the way this game works now. By claiming that spot, Universal is hoping no on else will come near them on that date with anything like the Fast & Furious films, leaving them their April dates to own completely.
While I think this sort of gamesmanship for dates involving sequels to films that haven't even been made yet is sort of insane, the one good part of it is that studios no longer see only May through August as big months, and they aren't just packing things into the holidays. We finally live in a world where blockbusters can come out any month as long as the studio is willing to do the work. We've got Deadpool coming out next week, and it's tracking to be a genuinely big film for Fox, while Warner Bros. has all their eggs pushed into the Batman v Superman basket in March, which has been a traditionally lucky month for them since The Matrix became one of 1999's biggest surprises.
But seriously, Universal… can you just patch me in by phone the next time Diesel and Gray have a story meeting? Please?