Diesel Says Seventh Fast & Furious Already in the Works

That's right. Even before the sixth movie is filmed, a seventh is already being planned. There's even some talk that the sixth and seventh movies may shoot simultaneously in much the same way that Peter Jackson filmed the Lord of the Rings films together to concentrate production assets.

"With the success of this last one," Diesel told THR during a photo shoot, "and the inclusion of so many characters, and the broadening of scope, when we were sitting down to figure out what would fit into the real estate of number six, we didn't have enough space." So, according to Diesel, screenwriter Chris Morgan is currently writing the next two movies in anticipation of director Justin Lin directing both. All the recurring cast, well aware on which side of the toast their careers are buttered, are likely to sign up for the duration.

For NBC Universal, the studio that produces and releases all the films in the series, agreeing to a seventh film is a no-brainer. Fast Five, which was released in 2011, raked in a mind-boggling $626 million at the worldwide box office. That doesn't count other revenue streams like marketing tie-ins, DVD sales, online distribution and eventual showings on TV. In other words, the studio won't cap this gusher of money until every last farthing and penny has been spat out of it.

"We have to pay off this story, we have to service all of these character relationships, and when we started mapping all that out it just went beyond 110 pages," Diesel continued to the show business trade journal. "The studio said, 'You can't fit all that story in one damn movie!'"

While the filmmakers have been working the heist and "family" relationships among the ever-expanding number of characters in the series, it's hard to imagine that anyone involved would be foolish enough to decide to scrimp on the absurd, over-the-top action that has been the hallmark of all five films so far. And a lot of that action will involve cars.

Interestingly, Diesel speculated similarly about the series doing two installments at a time back when Fast Five was just entering pre-production. So this may just be a trial balloon by the actor to see what shakes out of the production tree. However, in light of the massive success of the last two F&F films, green-lighting the production of two now makes even more sense. After all, if the sixth film is a hit, everyone involved will expect a bigger paycheck for the seventh. Signing them up now will keep their prices down.

Current plans are for Fast & Furious 6 to enter production this coming fall for a release in May 2013. If they make the next two back-to-back, expect the seventh to hit theaters in 2014. If the series keeps raking in the buckage as it has, expect the 20th film to appear somewhere around 2041. And the 50th in 2101 with the cryogenically preserved Vin Diesel scowl appearing alongside the pickled baby blue eyeballs of Paul Walker.

Like it or not, the F&F movies are unavoidable elements of the worldwide car culture.

Rumor has it that location scouts are in Berlin looking at possible filming sites in the German city. Here's hoping for some 320-plus-km/h autobahn action.