Justin Lin Confirms FAST AND FURIOUS 6 As His Next Project, Has Met with Schwarzenegger and Cameron for TERMINATOR

Following the (surprising) critical and (not so surprising) commercial success of Fast Five, director Justin Lin has been mentioned among many director shortlists for some of Hollywood’s biggest projects, and recently found himself attached to the next film in the Terminator franchise. While one might surmise that Lin would strike while the iron’s hot and move on to another high profile franchise, looks as though the director’s follow-up to Fast Five will actually be the sixth installment in the Fast & Furious franchise (which just recently got a release date of May 2013).

Terminator fans need not fret though, as Lin is still working on Arnold Schwarzenegger-starred film. In fact, the director just recently met with  Schwarzenegger and James Cameron to talk a bit about the franchise. Hit the jump for more details, including why Lin turned down the directing job of Die Hard 5.

In an interview with The Playlist, Lin confirmed that Fast and Furious 6 will be his next project.  As we previously reported, Paul Walker, Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson will all be back, and Fast Five screenwriter Chris Morgan has been working on the script. It was reported back in April that Universal was planning on turning the focus of the franchise from cars to heists, and continue on with a series of heist-centered films. No word on if that’s still the focus as of now.

In the interview, Lin also talked a bit about the Terminator movie he’s working on. While he didn’t go into details, he revealed that he recently sat down with Schwarzenegger and Cameron:

“Just even this week, I had a great meeting with Arnold and James Cameron, just sitting down unofficially. And James is so gracious because he’s not part of the project, he’s not going to be producing, but it was great of him just as a filmmaker to take time out to just talk.”

While it would be a logical assumption that Lin would move on to Terminator after Fast & Furious 6, the director wouldn’t confirm whether the Schwarzenegger film would be his next project after Fast 6 or not.

Lin also spoke a bit about being increasingly in-demand following the success of Fast Five. He confirmed that he’s been approached about a number of franchises, but he’s had to turn a lot of them down because of the lack of creative control that comes from being a director-for-hire on a blockbuster franchise sequel. He specifically addressed Die Hard 5, which he was recently named as being on the shortlist for:

“For many of the projects, I feel very privileged, but I just know it wasn’t the right situation. And the first Die Hard changed me as a kid when I watched it. But Die Hard 5 is just not something that I’m going to do, or I’m interested in.”

I was pleasantly surprised by Fast Five, and found Lin to have a knack for spectacular action sequences. He knows how to stage big set-pieces without the audience being confused as to who is who and what is what in the midst of a flurry of gunfire. Also, the movie was a hell of a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to seeing what Lin will do with the sixth entry, and the heist idea is definitely an intriguing concept. Fast and Furious 6 is set for release on May 24, 2013.