Timing has worked in Universal’s favour, as both Vin Diesel and Paul Walker look set to return to THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS franchise. The Hollywood Reporter say both actors are in talks to lead the fourth movie. Also returning will be the writer/director of the last movie Justin Lin, who bizarrely said last week the project wasn’t happening.

The balls to the wall car porn movie is being fast tracked as a pre-strike project and will begin shooting in the Spring, with locations including Los Angeles, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

Both actors of course starred in the big hit first movie in 2001 which grossed more than $144 million domestic ($207 worldwide) and it truly made stars out of both Walker and Diesel, the latter going on to star in his own massive action movie XXX. Diesel wouldn’t return for a sequel, but Walker did and 2 FAST 2 FURIOUS was a huge success, grossing more money world wide than the original.

Last year saw TOKOYO DRIFT hit our screens without Vin Diesel again and without Paul Walker and for the first time it didn’t reach the $200 million worldwide mark, instead settling for $158 million - with big cracks starting to show not only in the film’s quality but in box office returns.

For the series to carry on, something had to be done… and bringing back Vin Diesel and Paul Walker would seem to be the only option. The career’s of both men haven’t turned out quite like they expected, and are certainly not A-List stars in 2007.

Both men are struggling for the real big roles at the moment and coming back to this franchise might be beneficial to not only the series but there career’s also. Timing seems right for this.