As the saying goes “the show must go on!” That’s certainly the tune that The Fast and Furious 7 producers are singing. It should have been no surprise to anyone that those involved were dedicated to finishing the project after Paul Walkers death. Both of his brother, Cody and Caleb, have stepped in as body doubles for their deceased brother, and sources close to the movie say that the script has been altered very little from its original state. Though Universal swears that they will finish only slightly over their original budget ($200 million), their films insurer has already started to express their concerns.
One of the major expenses Universal will have to compensate for is hiring Peter Jackson’s digital media studio Weta to assist in the special effects needed to complete Walker’s role in the movie. It has been reported that special effects will be used to reconstruct Walker’s face on screen. Consider it the movie equivalent to Tupac Shakur’s hologram appearance at Coachella in 2012 or Michael Jackson’s back-from-the-dead appearance at this years Billboard Music Awards. Those performances were met with approval rather than disdain, and its reasonably assumed that Walker’s facial hologram will be accepted as well.
There are some who argue that recreating life-like images of the dead is not moral. But it appears that the majority of our society does not find anything unethical about these replications. For the most part they are seen as tributes, and this film will be considered the same. Walker was and still is the face of The Fast and Furious franchise (along with his close friend Vin Diesel) and his fans will embrace seeing him speed across the silver screen one last time. Universal obviously has the Walker family’s support and the film will act as final tribute to a genuine and caring person.
