'Fast and Furious 7' News: Cast Continues Filming in Abu Dhabi? [VIDEO]
The "Fast and Furious 7" casts have reportedly joined the production crew in Abu Dhabi as filming resumes. In November of 2013, it was announced that part of the movie will be filmed in Abu Dhabi and in February, clips from the shooting in Abu Dhabi started circulating on the Internet. The footages showed a police car chasing a red Ferrari.
According to Variety, the scenes that will be shot in Abu Dhabi will show stunt footages and helicopter shots with a lot of visual effects. It was originally planned that along with the crew, 80 to 120 members of the cast will start filming in the city in January. After Walker's sudden death in November, the filming was delayed. Twofour54 is now acting as the local producer of "Fast and Furious 7" in Abu Dhabi.
Universal Pictures and the Abu Dhabi Film Commission have recently announced in a statement that director James Wan and producer and actor Vin Diesel, as well as stars Tyrese Gibson, Michelle Rodriguez and Chris "Ludacris" Bridges will join the production crew in Abu Dhabi to resume production.
As the U.A.E. producer, Twofour54 will use local crew and benefit from Abu Dhabi's 30 percent rebate on qualifying local spend as an incentive. "Directly, major productions like "Fast and Furious 7" filmed in Abu Dhabi create new and highly qualified jobs, provide opportunities for equipment providers, a robust production infastructure and service, grow a deeper pool of industry talent, contribute to the establishment of new companies to serve the movie industry," said Noura Al Kaabi, chief executive of Twofour54. "Indirectly, the movies' box office appeal has a positive impact on U.A.E. trade and tourism. Just look at what happened to New Zealand, a good example of an economy that has seen a tangible impact to it Gross Domestic Product (GDP) after being a location for blockbuster film franchises."
The untimely death of Walker left the producers in a dilemma about how they would adjust the newest "Fast" installment, which was originally scheduled for release on July 11, 2014. The script is reportedly rewritten radically but it still has not been revealed whether or not Walker's character will be killed off or retired. Due to the huge attention from fans, the producers handled the matter very sensitively. The movie is now set to release on April 10, 2015.
Watch the Abu Dhabi behind the scenes here