It’s Catastrophic: Kurt Russell speaks out on Paul Walker’s death

Russell says that drastic rewriting was required on the script of Fast & Furious 7.

Kurt Russell is a new addition to the cast of the hit Fast & Furious franchise. The Hollywood icon, 62, is going to be seen in the role of a father figure to Vin Diesel’s character Dominic Toretto. While promoting his latest project The Battered Bastards of Baseball at the Sundance Film Festival this week, Kurt was asked about how Fast & Furious 7 is developing.

“They’re having to rewrite, they’re having to do whatever they’re having to do to deal with the situation,” Russell said, according to the newspaper Metro.

“It’s catastrophic. It’s the worst thing that could happen to a movie but it’s not as bad as what happened to Paul.”

“So everything is in perspective. He was a terrific guy. And life is full of curveballs. It’s just a situation that they’ll work out and, at that time, I’ll go back to work.”

Walker was killed instantly after the Porsche in which he was a passenger crashed into a pole and burst into flames, while travelling at high speed through a suburban street in Santa Clarita, California, on November 30, 2013.

His death came while the new movie was in the midst of principal photography, following which it was announced that the film would be delayed until April 2015, and that Paul Walker’s character Brian O’Conner — who has been in the series since its inception — will be retired rather than killed off. Some reports have said that the actor’s look-alike brother Cody Walker will be standing in for his remaining scenes.

Universal Pictures have already confirmed that Walker will feature in the film when it hits box offices next year. “Continuing the global exploits in the franchise built on speed, Vin Diesel and Paul Walker lead the returning cast of Fast & Furious 7, which will be released by Universal Pictures on April 10, 2015,” they said in an official statement.

James Wan directs this instalment of the hugely successful series, and Neal H Moritz and Vin Diesel return as producers.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 26^th, 2014.

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