'Fast & Furious' 8 cast, news & update: 'Straight Outta Compton' F. Gary Gray as director?

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"Furious" star Vin Diesel has made good on his promise to keep fans updated on the road to creating the eighth installment of the massive franchise despite Paul Walker's unfortunate passing in the middle of creating the seventh film.

Diesel announced via his official Facebook page late last month that production is definitely pushing through for Furious 8, and possibly two more films, but the process of selecting a director is a meticulous one because "this is too special a franchise, so these matters have to be very carefully handled."

Variety reports that the contenders for the directing position include Straight Outta Compton's F. Gary Gray, The Guest’s Adam Wingard, Now You See Me's Louis Leterrier, and Will Eubank. However, it seems that Diesel, who The Hollywood Reporter notes has no director approval rights but is consulted on all major decisions, has made his choice for the film.

Diesel changed his Facebook cover photo to one of himself and Straight Outta Compton helmer F. Gary Gray, spurring talk that Gray may be in the final stages of working out a deal with Universal, the studio which also produced Straight Outta Compton to a whopping $160 million in the United States alone.

Gray's other credits include "The Italian Job" (2003), "A Man Apart" (in which he worked with Diesel), and "Law Abiding Citizen" (2009), among other feature films. Gray seems to be one of the hottest directors today, as Collider reports that Marvel was looking to get him to direct the upcoming Black Panther film. That would have placed him in a tricky situation, as Furious 8 is set for an April 2017 release, while Black Panther is in July 2018. The Wrap reports, however, that there isn't any serious contender for Black Panther yet, so Gray is free to jump on the Furious bandwagon.

In August, Gray spoke with Deadline about how his goal was to be able to direct a film by the time he was 45. The Straight Outta Compton director is now 46, and looked back at how Steven Spielberg was inspiration to him when he was younger.

Gray said, "This was before Spike Lee, John Singleton and all those guys. The only person I referenced as a filmmaker was Steven Spielberg...From my perspective, he was from another world, successful. It was a crude approach, but for me it was, who is the most successful guy in the business? Steven Spielberg. OK, I want to be like this dude. So I studied his approach, and I just figured I’d have a gray beard like he did, when I was 45."

Bringing another $160 million back to Universal for Furious 8 is a dream yet to hopefully be fulfilled come April 14, 2017.