The production of “Furious 7” was a sad story with a relatively happy ending. Leading man Paul Walker suffered a tragic car crash during its production, forcing the filmmakers to stall production and rewrite the movie. Emotions were high among the cast and crew for this seventh installment, but ultimately, the moviereceived favorable reviews and even more favorable fan reception. Whether or not you liked the film, there was little question as to whether or not “Furious 7” treated Walker’s death respect. Universal reaped the benefits earlier this year when the film brought in a staggering $1.5 billion at the worldwide box office, which is nearly double what “Fast & Furious 6” brought in (around $789 million).

Obviously, a sequel was inevitable, but considering the toll that the production of “Furious 7” took on director James Wan, he opted to make a sequel to his 2013 film, “The Conjuring” instead hopping on the “Furious 8” bandwagon. Thus began the series of problems that “Furious 8” apparently finds itself in, THR reports.

Following Wan’s refusal, Universal then went to “Fast & Furious” veteran director Justin Lin for the eighth film, but the director instead went on to shoot the next “Star Trek” movie.

The studio then went back to Wan, likely with a dump truck full of money in tow. This sadly, didn’t change Wan’s position on things. As mentioned prior, the filming of “Furious 7” had truly exhausted him, and Wan was said to have felt that returning to the franchise so soon could have been life ending for him. On top of the pressure to rewrite “Furious 7” and choreograph complicated visual effects scenes in an effort to “resurrect” Walker, sources are now saying that actor Vin Diesel was especially difficult.

THR said the following:

“As a producer, he is said to have questioned even small details on elaborate action sequences, often holding up the complex production. He also was known to summon filmmakers to repeated late-night script sessions to make him comfortable with his character and dialogue.”

Spokespersons on either side of this are denying the claims that Diesel was hard to work with, but the real fear Universal seems to be having is in Diesel’s interest in directing a “Fast & Furious” film. Could Diesel’s directing of “Furious 8” make the set just that much more difficult? It’s impossible for us to say, since everything we know about the set is hear-say, but for the time being, Universal is still hard at work looking for a director.

That isn’t the only problem the franchise is facing, however. Amid all the director drama is the exit of Jeffrey Kirschenbaum, a production executive at Universal who oversaw the “Fast & Furious” franchise, and was also credited in assisting with script rewrites of “Furious 7.” Without that extra helpful hand to push the film along, that April 2017 deadline is looking especially intimidating.

What are your thoughts? Is “Furious 8” in trouble, or is this just a typical Tuesday in Hollywood? Let us know your thoughts down below?

SOURCE: THR