"Fast and the Furious 7" also known as "Furious 7" hit the record books for the Easter opening weekend. The American action film stunningly pulled more than a pedal-to-the-metal as it "road rage" its way to theaters in North America and the world with a confirmed $384 million in the box office.
Universal Pictures is ecstatic that the seventh installment, which has already shattered the film's franchise record, will finally be the major Hollywood film studio's endeavour to reached $1 billion in ticket sales. The film's orgy of pulse-pounding stunts, high-speed chases and face-melting explosions and the audience's desire to grace actor Paul Walker in the silver screen for the last time were factors to its opening success.
The film studio almost succumbed to a devastating roadblock when Walker who portrayed FBI agent turned renegade street-racer Brian O'Conner met his untimely demise in a single-car accident in 2013 who was driven his friend Roger Rodas. Production was put to a halt as Universal and the filmmakers had not yet come to a decision to continue with the movie. In due course, both sides have decided to delay its release from its scheduled date of July 2014.
Despite the team's impressive achivement, director James Wan candidly admitted it was hard to proceed with the filming especially for actress Jordana Brewster, who had "to try to do the dialogue with him and he's no longer there". Brewster portrayed Mia Torreto, Conner's love interest since the inception of the movie.
The director added,"I think Jordana was the most emotional through it all. It was doubly surreal when she had to do her scenes with Cody or Caleb, or with John, but pretend that it's Paul. That was a tricky one for me to direct, because I had to be very sensitive to that and just help her along and just try to get her in the right mindset."
The physics-defying Fast and the Furious franchise began in 2001 with a screenplay loosely inspired by an article entiled, "Racer X" which was featured in Vibe magazine.
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