Vin Diesel: Furious 7 will win Best Picture at the Oscars
The Fast & Furious franchise is one of Hollywood's most lucrative, with a combined gross of over $2.3 billion dollars worldwide over its first six movies. But while the next installment, Furious 7, is guaranteed to rake in hundreds of millions more, star Vin Diesel has his sights set on an entirely different prize: a Best Picture Oscar.
"Universal is going to have the biggest movie in history with [Furious 7]," said Diesel in an interview with Variety. "It will probably win best picture at the Oscars, unless the Oscars don’t want to be relevant ever."
Never one to do something halfway, Diesel immediately doubled down on his prediction, then claimed that Furious 7 is the greatest accomplishment in cinematic history — or, depending on how you read it, the greatest accomplishment in human history. "This will win best picture," he said. "There is nothing that will ever come close to the power of this thing."
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For the record, Avatar is the highest-grossing movie in history, with $2.7 billion worldwide; Ben-Hur, Titanic, and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King are tied for the most Oscar wins in a single year, with 11 apiece. Neither of those records seems likely to be toppled by Furious 7 — but then again, you can never underestimate the universal appeal of cars going vroooooooom.
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Scott Meslow is the entertainment editor for TheWeek.com. He has written about film and television at publications including The Atlantic, POLITICO Magazine, and Vulture.
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