Universal Already Thinking Long-Term with Fast & Furious Franchise

They've had many a financial misstep, but Universal knows it has one sure-fire money-printing machine in The Fast & the Furious franchise. Add an extra 0 or two at the end of Vin Diesel and Paul Walker's already-handsomely paid checks, highlight the latest slick vehicles on the market and let Justin Lin concoct crazy action set-pieces and they're good to go at the box-office.

The studio is ramping up for Fast Six as the centerpiece of their 2013 summer line-up handing it a prime Memorial Day release date. But Twitchfilm reports like any smart set of fat-cat executives, the decision-makers at Universal are already thinking past Movie #6.

Their spies are telling them one idea being toyed with is having Lin and the gang shoot Fast Six and a Fast Seven back-to-back next year when production begins in Europe. Furthermore continuing the trend of getting established action-stars to the Fast brand-name (following how well Dwayne Johnson turned out in Fast Five) a new name has been bantered about to join the franchise: Jason Statham.

Not that these plans are 100% locked, mind you. Talks between Universal and Statham's people are in "preliminary conversations" (i.e. getting a feel of his interest level) and it isn’t known if the hypothetical plan would entail him being in both films or having him appear a la Eve Mendes and Michelle Rodriquez at the tail end of Fast Five as the sequel setup/hook to get the audiences game for the next one.