It's been a long and dramatic road for Vin Diesel and the cast and crew of “Fast 7.” The death of Paul Walker, one of Diesel's good friends, delayed the film for almost a year and led to additional work on the picture.
The film got a sneak screening at SXSW where HitFix's own Drew McWeeny raved about it. This pundit was at another screening and is currently embargoed from discussing it in detail, but I will reveal that all the buzz about an emotional ending is very, very true.
“Fast 7” is also reportedly looking at a monster $115 million three-day weekend when it opens a week from Friday which would top “Fast & Furious 6's” $97 million debut in 2013. Diesel, who is also a producer of the film, recently spoke to Variety about the expected blockbuster and, not surprisingly, made some slightly out there comments.
“Universal is going to have the biggest movie in history with this movie,” Diesel told Variety. “It will probably win best picture at the Oscars, unless the Oscars don”t want to be relevant ever.”
“This will win best picture,” Diesel continued. “There is nothing that will ever come close to the power of this thing.”
Diesel is clearly in a euphoric state over how the film turned out, but we think he might have overreached just a wee bit with his predictions. We're not even sure “Avengers: Age of Ultron” or “Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens” has a shot to top “Avatar's” $2.7 billion worldwide gross. Moreover, a Best Picture win let alone nomination? Um…well, it's never to early to start campaigning!
“Fast 7” opens nationwide on April 3.