Paul Walker

Paul Walker Talks Hurricane Katrina Suspense Drama HOURS

by Dave Trumbore    Posted: April 25th, 2012 at 8:08 pm

Paul Walker is in New Orleans fighting to keep his newborn daughter alive in the wake of a devastating hurricane.  That’s the premise of Walker’s new suspense drama, Hours, which the The Fast and the Furious actor is currently filming in The Big Easy.  Walker stars as Nolan, a man grieving with the recent passing of his wife while attempting to keep his premature newborn daughter alive after they are abandoned in a New Orleans hospital during landfall of Hurricane Katrina.  Complicating matters are the rising floodwaters and frequent power outages that threaten to shut down his daughter’s incubator.  The project is one that hits close to Walker’s heart; he’s a father to a 13-year-old daughter.  Subject matter aside, the reportedly long hours in front of the camera make this film one of Walker’s toughest films yet.  Hours also stars Genesis Rodriguez (Casa de mi Padre) and was written and directed by Eric Heisserer (The Thing).  Hit the jump for much more on the project.

Dwayne Johnson Says FAST SIX Shoots in May; SIX and SEVEN Will Be Shot Separately in the UK and Germany

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: February 15th, 2012 at 10:32 am

Dwayne Johnson is quickly becoming the go-to guy when you want to reinvigorate a franchise. He was brought in on G.I. Joe: Retaliation and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, and recently Johnson’s charisma was on full-display in Justin Lin’s surprisingly fantastic Fast Five. Following the smashing success of the fifth entry in the Fast and Furious franchise, Universal quickly got to work plotting out a follow-up installment. Lin committed to coming back to the series, and we soon learned that the producers were mulling over the idea of shooting both Fast Six and Fast Seven back-to-back. It appears that’s not the case anymore, as Johnson recently spoke a bit about the upcoming sequels. Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

First Images and Synopsis for VEHICLE 19 Starring Paul Walker

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: November 6th, 2011 at 6:00 pm

Straight out of the American Film Market, we’ve got the first images and a brief synopsis for the indie thriller Vehicle 19. The film stars Paul Walker, who is also an executive producer on the project, and centers on a foreign traveler who picks up the wrong rental car and ends up caught in the middle of a police corruption scandal. This isn’t your typical thriller though, because the hook of Vehicle 19 is that the entire film was shot from inside this one car. Written and directed by South African filmmaker Mukunda Michael Dewil, the film is an atypical action pic. Hit the jump to check out the images and the synopsis, as well as some thoughts from Dewil himself about the unique filmmaking approach.

Paul Walker in Talks for BRICK MANSIONS, the American Remake of Luc Besson’s BANLIEUE 13

by Dave Trumbore    Posted: October 26th, 2011 at 5:43 pm

Paul Walker is taking a break from the high-octane world of The Fast and the Furious to join the equally adrenaline-pumping heights of Parkour. Walker is currently in talks to star in Brick Mansions, the American revision of Banlieue 13 (District B13) with a script by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen (Taken). Besson co-wrote the original Paris-set film starring Parkour-creator David Belle (District 13: Ultimatum), who will reprise his original role in the remake.

Brick Mansions will be set in an American city, with Walker slotted to play an undercover detective tracking down a drug dealer who has stolen a weapon of mass destruction. The chase leads into the ghetto known as Brick Mansions, where he enlists help from Lino (Belle), who knows the streets better than anyone and isn’t afraid of the drug dealers. Hit the jump for more on Brick Mansions.

Rumor: Shortlist of Actors to Play Bruce Willis’ Son and Possibly Inherit DIE HARD Franchise Includes Aaron Paul and Ben Foster

by Dave Trumbore    Posted: October 13th, 2011 at 5:34 pm

The casting of John McClane was never in question, even if the fifth installment in the Die Hard franchise did struggle with landing a director (they settled on John Moore). But McClane can’t keep dodging bullets forever; sooner or later his son will have to inherit the famous one-liner. The shortlist for actors to fill Bruce Willis’s shoes is rumored to be as follows: Ben Foster (The Mechanic), Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine), Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad), Milo Ventimiglia (Heroes) and Paul Walker (Fast Five). All of the above actors are expected to test with Willis, except for Walker, who Fox has a strong interest in. Plot details are thin at the moment, though we do know the film will be set in Russia and will involve some father/son crime fighting. To see why this will probably be the first Die Hard to make me cry, hit the jump.

FAST FIVE Blu-ray Review

by Andre Dellamorte    Posted: October 6th, 2011 at 8:36 am

Justin Lin’s Fast Five is preposterously entertaining in all the right ways. Modern cinema likes to couch its action movies these days in special effects and the sci-fi and fantasy genres so much that a film about a heist and people driving cars really fast comes across as a breath of fresh air. Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson star in the fifth entry in the Fast and Furious franchise, this time taking place in Rio where Brian O’Connor (Walker) and Dominic Toretto (Diesel) go head to head with evil crime boss (Joaquim de Almeida) and have to assemble a team out of the actors who’ve previously appeared in the franchise. Our review of the Blu-ray of Fast Five follows after the jump.

Casting Call: Aubrey Plaza Joins CHARLIE SWAN, Paul Walker Toplines HOURS, and Michael Angarano Enrolls in THE ENGLISH TEACHER

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: October 5th, 2011 at 4:30 pm

We’ve got a few casting stories for you this afternoon. First up, Aubrey Plaza (who regularly kills it on NBC’s Parks and Recreation) has joined the cast of Roman Coppola’s A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charlie Swan III. The indie stars Charlie Sheen (essentially playing himself) as a successful graphic designer whose fame and fortune have made him irresistible to women. His life goes south quickly when his girlfriend breaks up with him, and he starts having delirious fantasies about his long list of exes. Variety reports that Plaza will play a producer who works with Sheen at his design company. The cast also includes Jason Schwartzman, who shared some screen time with Plaza in Judd Apatow’s Funny People.

Hit the jump for the casting news of the Hurricane Katrina thriller Hours and the Julianne Moore indie comedy The English Teacher.

Posters for Jason Statham’s SAFE, Paul Walker’s VEHICLE 19, Gerard Butler’s MACHINE GUN PREACHER

by Brendan Bettinger    Posted: August 15th, 2011 at 9:20 pm

We’ve got three action-heavy posters tonight.  First up is Safe, in which Jason Statham plays “a former elite agent who fights to rescue a 12-year-old girl (Catherine Chan).”  Next up is Vehicle 19, starring and executive produced by Paul Walker.  The new promo poster is accompanied by the first synopsis for the film, which identifies Walker as a recently parolee who gets into trouble with crooked cops when he picks up the wrong rental car.  Last up is Machine Gun Preacher, based on the true story of Sam Childers (played by Gerard Butler), “a former drug-dealing criminal who undergoes an astonishing transformation and finds an unexpected calling as the savior of hundreds of kidnapped and orphaned children.”

Hit the jump for all three posters and more info on each project.

TERMINATOR Reboot Rumors: STAR TREK-Style Alternate Timeline? Paul Walker as Kyle Reese?

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: June 6th, 2011 at 2:14 pm

Arnold Schwarzenegger put his acting career on hold when it was discovered he had a in-no-way-surprising secret love child with his housekeeper.  That threw a wrench into Justin Lin’s Terminator 5 but producer Megan Ellison, who now holds the rights to the franchise, isn’t going to sit around waiting until the public moves on to the next scandal and forgets that Schwarzenegger is no hero.  With that in mind, What’s Playing has some interesting rumors to report on the film.

First up, the new film may bring back original characters Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor but it may do so in a Star Trek-style alternate timeline fashion where new actors could play the roles and take them in a new direction.  Since the franchise has always included some element of time travel, a fractured timeline wouldn’t be a crazy idea (especially since they already used that premise to spin off the short-lived The Sarah Connor Chronicles).  That’s a solid way to reboot the franchise and it would be even better if they could just cut out Schwarzenegger entirely.  But I could live with his casting if it didn’t mean another disturbing rumor coming to fruition.  Hit the jump for more.

FAST FIVE Review

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: April 29th, 2011 at 6:36 am

You know what a Fast and Furious movie is by this point.  They’re loud, obnoxious, somewhat-heartless, sometimes unintentionally hilarious, rarely intentionally hilarious, incredibly aggressive action movies.  You know that’s what you’re getting when you buy your ticket and the only thing that’s changed about the series is that it’s become less about racing and more about squeezing in familiar faces to pull off some high-octane crime.  Fast Five ditches the racing almost entirely and replaces it with a heist film that recalls Ocean’s Eleven but with brawn instead of brains.

Paul Walker to Star in and Executive Produce VEHICLE 19

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: April 26th, 2011 at 5:06 pm

While he’s currently preparing for the US release of Fast Five (and also presumably gearing up for those sequels), Paul Walker is also busy working behind the scenes on his next project. The actor will star in and executive produce the indie thriller Vehicle 19. Directed by South African filmmaker Mukunda Michael Dewil, the film centers on a foreign traveler who picks up the wrong rental car, only to be caught up in a “web of corruption by the local police.”

Heat Vision reports that the plan is to shoot in South Africa at the end of this summer. Walker is currently doing the press rounds for the fifth film in the Fast and Furious franchise. Yesterday it was reported that future sequels will switch genres from street racing, to heist films. No word on whether the genre change omits Walker’s character.

Will the FAST AND FURIOUS Franchise Ditch the Street Racing for a Series of Heist Movies?

by Brendan Bettinger    Posted: April 25th, 2011 at 8:23 pm

The Fast and the Furious series is one of the major gaps in my male cinematic knowledge.  I am too effeminate, too pretentious.  However, I have much respect for the continued success of the franchise after the 2009 surge to a series-best $353 million worldwide box office with Fast & Furious.  Fast Five opens this Friday, and the smart money is on “Major Hit.”  The producers wisely tapped into the core appeal of the films and secured virtually every major player in the series — including Vin Diesel, Paul Walker,  Jordana Brewster, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang — and upped the ante by casting potential action god Dwayne Johnson.

Pretend you’re a studio executive for a second.  At this point, you wouldn’t reinvent the market’s premier car movie brand to cater to someone like this silly writer, right?  And yet, Universal chairman Adam Fogelson is discussing just such a shift.

Chris Morgan — screenwriter on Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious, and Fast Five — was previously hired to start work on a sixth film.  Deadline reports the sequel is set up to revolve around a robbery: “Universal’s intent is to transform this street racing franchise into a series of heist films.”  More after the jump.

New Interactive Trailer for FAST FIVE

by Dave Trumbore    Posted: April 19th, 2011 at 8:05 pm

Unless you’ve been living in the land of horse and buggies for the last ten years, you know that The Fast and the Furious franchise has dominated theaters with big muscles and bigger engines. With the fifth installment, Fast Five, ready to open in less than two weeks, a new interactive trailer has popped up that is chock full of extra gearhead information. Like, did you know that the car Vin Diesel and Paul Walker drive off the cliff is a 1966 Chevy Corvette Grand Sport? Or that Jordana Brewster looks smokin’ hot in a 1966 Ford GT40?

The film stars Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Jordana Brewster, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges and Tyrese Gibson, produced by Neal Moritz and directed by Justin Lin. Fast Five is set to be released on April 29^th. Hit the jump to check out the new interactive trailer.

10 Clips from FAST FIVE

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: April 12th, 2011 at 9:36 pm

Universal has sent over 10 clips from director Justin Lin’s Fast Five which stars Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Jordana Brewster, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, Matt Schulze, Tego Calderon and Don Omar.  The latest chapter in the franchise is set in Rio de Janeiro and features a federal agent (Johnson) hot on the trail of a jail-skipping Dom Toretto (Diesel).

Even though I know exactly how this film is going to play out, I’ll admit the trailers and clips have definitely sold me.  What can I say, I like my popcorn movies.  Also, with an April 29 release date, the film is one of the first big summer movies and it’s going to make a ton of money.  After all, who doesn’t want to see Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson fight?  As producer Neal Moritz told me:

“They beat the shit out of each other, we shot for probably four days of them literally beating the shit out of each other. The audience is gonna be like ‘wow’.”

I can’t wait.  Hit the jump to watch the clips.

54 High Resolution Images from FAST FIVE

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: April 11th, 2011 at 6:06 pm

With Justin Lin’s Fast Five opening April 29, Universal has released the full press kit and included are a ton of new images from the fifth installment starring Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Jordana Brewster, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, Matt Schulze, Tego Calderon and Don Omar.  The latest chapter in the franchise is set in Rio de Janeiro and features a federal agent (Johnson) hot on the trail of a jail-skipping Dom Toretto (Diesel). Hit the jump for all the images and the official synopsis.

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