Vin Diesel: F Gary Gray deserves Best Director Oscar for Fast 8

While out promoting ‘Furious 7’ Vin Diesel would tell anyone that would listen that the blockbuster deserved Oscar success.

In the end it didn’t receive any nominations. But that hasn’t stopped the actor from declaring that its follow-up ‘Fast 8’ is just as worthy, and Diesel has insisted that F Gary Gray in particular deserves to walk away with the Best Director gong.

Vin Diesel told ET Online that Gray’s work on ‘Fast 8’ is certain for Oscar success, adding, “As bizarre as that might be, he is definitely going to [be recognised].”

“As crazy as that might sound, he should have really been acknowledged for ‘Straight Outta Compton’. I think he went into making this movie with a little bit of a chip [on his shoulder], going, ‘Oh, really? Now I’m going to take the biggest saga in the world, and I’m about to thrown Oscars at you.’ Wait until you see what he does!”

Because of his work on ‘Straight Outta Compton’, F. Gary Gray was one of the names that was cited when the controversy over the lack of diversity of the 2016’s Oscar nominations, while the biopic’s gross of $201.6 million led Gray to be hired to oversee ‘Fast 8’.

But this isn’t the first time that Vin Diesel has declared that an instalment from the ‘Fast & Furious’ franchise deserved Oscar glory. Diesel told Los Angeles Times that ‘Fast Five’ should have been in contention for the 2011 Academy Awards, while he also proclaimed to Variety that ‘Furious 7’ would “probably win best picture at the Oscars, unless the Oscars don’t want to be relevant ever.”

The Oscars picked ‘Spotlight’ to win Best Picture instead of ‘Furious 7’. You’ll get to see if ‘Fast 8’ can go one better and at least gain a nomination when it’s released on April 14, 2017.

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[Images via Universal Pictures]