Fast and the Furious Five To Be Set in Brazil?

According to widespread reports, Paul Walker let slip some details of an upcoming fifth film in the Fast and the Furious franchise when appearing on the Valentine in the Morning radio show. This isn’t really a surprise - the fourth installment had one heck of an opening, and the series overall is running at an incredibly healthy total.

What’s more, he gave up two specifics: that Vin Diesel will also be coming back for more; and that this time, they’ll be relocating to Brazil. The exact quote below the fold, plus the studio’s follow up statement.

"This was supposed to be it. There wasn’t supposed to be the open-ended closing like there was. When I first read the screenplay, I was like, ‘Man, look what they’re doing.’ But without question, with the way things opened up, Vin and I will be coming back, we’re making a fifth one, and we’re going to Brazil, that’s it."

Brazil seems to produce an unholy amount of supermodels, so I expect we’ll be seeing at least one in the film. Here’s hoping she’s given a car of her own, or something else worthwhile to do, and isn’t relegated to tiresome arm candy duties. Or, if she’s got to be nothing more than bikini-stuffing set dressing, let her at least be that in context and just give her a flag to wave at the start of a race.

I tried to research something of the street racing culture in Brazil, and all I really managed to find out was that it exists. Sao Paolo by night certainly fits the colour scheme of the Fast and the Furious series so far, anyway.

It seems fairly likely from Walker’s comments that the original plan was to wrap the series up conclusively with part 4, and in a way that was, to him at least, noteworthy. I suspect they were originally planning to kill off both the Brian O’Conner and Dominic Toretto characters, or at least somehow render them incapable of driving. I also suspect this may have been part of a studio gambit to get further sequel contracts out of the stars. Perhaps I’m just being cynical - but if that was their plan, it worked.

I know it’s not really sensible to trust celebrity quotes from radio shows, but E! have chased down confirmation from Universal that yes, indeed they are lining up a new installment.

I’m predicting right now that this series has 3D in its future. Just a hunch.