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Fast & Furious Using Face-Replacement Technology

Universal using face-replacement technology to synthesize Paul Walker in new Fast & Furious 7 film pushing the budget costs to soar past $250 million.

After the death of Paul Walker in November while in the midst of shooting Fast & Furious 7 it was clear the actor’s untimely death could trigger by far the largest insurance claim in Hollywood history.

CelebNMusic247.com learned about the insurance claim head toward being the largest ever in movie history on Thursday and now more news regarding the films budget and storyline has surfaced.

It now appears to be the case as the project is undergoing an effects-packed 13-week shoot that will culminate in July with an enormous crowd scene using 600 people in the town of Rosamond, near Bakersfield, Calif. But according to a source with knowledge of the situation, there is growing tension between Universal Pictures and its insurer, Fireman’s Fund, over the size of a record-smashing claim in the ballpark of $50 million.

The cost of finishing Fast & Furious 7, originally budgeted at $200 million, will be daunting, even though a person with ties to the project says the storyline has not changed drastically.

The person says:

“They are finishing the film more or less as scripted, replacing Paul with [computer-generated] face replacement.”

“They have two of Paul’s brothers as well as an actor to ‘play’ Paul when needed.”

We have also learned from PatDollard.com that (The Walker brothers, 25-year-old Cody and 36-year-old Caleb, both are helping fill in for their brother physically — Caleb primarily for body size and mannerisms and Cody for the eyes. But the filmmakers need to create a character that not only looks like Paul but also performs like him. That’s the actor’s job.) Peter Jackson’s Weta is tackling the effects work using three cameras (in addition to the main-unit cameras) to capture Walker’s stand-ins for face replacement. “There is a massive amount of gear,” reports the source. “Everything they want with Paul gets done three times over. Three [actors] times seven cameras per shot is a clusterf— of money being spent.”