The Need for Speed film was released in 2014. It starred Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul and current Preacher star Dominic Cooper with legend Michael Keaton providing a supporting role. The movie ended up being a financial success grossing $203,277,636 worldwide on a budget estimated around $66,000,000. With this level of success immediately started talks of a sequel, but was its level of success and any future sequel being green-lit all on the count of tragedy?
I will start out by saying I really liked the Need for Speed movie, probably more than anyone else you will find. I actually really want a Need for Speed sequel more than Fast & Furious 9: Mission Space or where ever they are going next. Need for Speed may have been a financial success, but it currently only holds a 22% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with audiences only reporting 57% liked it. So how did it get a respectable box office run?
Car movies are a rarity in the blockbuster world, but in 2014 there were supposed to be two big budget car movies released. You may remember that originally Furious 7 was scheduled for a Summer 2014 release, but was pushed back a year due to the car crash of a Porsche Carrera GT which claimed the life of Paul Walker. Did Furious 7 being pushed back funnel consumers to go give Need for Speed a chance? There will never be a metric to legitimately identify that, but it is enough to spark an idea in my head. That idea is my being a Need for Speed film fan and knowing all of this – it would be a great television series.
Take a look at the movie, that is if you saw it. It was advertised and held onto the belief that it was going back to the routes of car films like Bullitt. There were no CGI scenes, no 100 mile runways, and no submarines. The extent of being “fake” for the movie was that the cars such as the Koenigsegg Agera and the McLaren P1 were kit cars. This means financially in a world were all non reality shows have extensive costly CGI, a Need for Speed show would keep costs down.
I think car enthusiasts deserve a realistic non reality car show. Right now if you want a car show you have to go the route of corny reality series, but there is some saving grace due to car review/feature shows such as The Grand Tour, Top Gear, and of course /DRIVE on NBC Sports. If a Need for Speed show was created it would allow character depth, back stories, wrenching time, with real life/relationships sprinkled in between.
This just an idea after re-watching the movie recently. Let me know what you think of a Need for Speed TV show and what you thought of the movie in the first place in the comments.
If this seed of an idea does grow, I expect producer credit and occasional cameos.