'5 Fast 5 Furious?'

I’m a little confused as to how a series like “The Fast and the Furious” has managed to survive five iterations, and all I can come up with is that Vin Diesel must be working cheap.

All kidding aside, “Fast & Furious” did rather well for itself last year, and it looks like Universal Pictures gave its inevitable sequel “Fast Five” (no giggling) the greenlight on Wednesday. The film will reunite stars Diesel and Paul Walker with director Justin Lin (“Tokyo Drift,” “Fast & Furious”), screenwriter Chris Morgan, and producer Neal Moritz.

And as if getting the gang back together wasn’t reason enough to start revving your engines, the series is going the “Smokey and the Bandit” route this time around, with a plot that casts our heroes as “fugitives being pursued by legendary lawmen,” according to the press release.

At this point, “The Fast and the Furious” is only a step or two behind “Saw” as America’s most prolific modern franchise (not counting the likes of the Harry Potters), and it’s because Universal has found a way to keep the series profitable that we, if nothing else, will be continually amused by whatever silly title their marketing department tinkers up.

There’s not even a solid release schedule for “Fast Five” yet, but feel free to offer your own sequel titles below. Personally, I’m going with “Fast & Furious: Six Appeal” and “The Furious Seven,” (Diesel hops a DeLorean to Feudal Japan).


Thanks to /Film.