Fast Five writer gets in the driver’s seat of Fast Six and major production deal at Universal

Chris Morgan – writer of the third, fourth and fifth installments of Universal’s Fast and the Furious franchise (Fast Five opens April 29) – has signed a two-year first-look production deal with the studio, according to THR. The deal also includes penning the script for Fast Six.

According to the report, Morgan has been a key player in the Fast and the Furious series, working with director Justin Lin, who directed the three movies. Chris Morgan also wrote Universal’s 2008 hit Wanted, as well as 47 Ronin, the Keanu Reeves samurai epic currently in production. He’s developing a film for the studio based on the popular Japanese monster game Bakugan.

“I don’t want to be the guy who gets a vanity production deal and does nothing,” Morgan said of the deal. “I want to be the guy who goes out there and busts my ass and fixes broken stories and finds material to bring back – quite frankly, as a reward to the studio that has worked with me for so long. We have a very effective partnership, and we want to get some big movies off the ground.”

Morgan began his career by sharing a Medieval siege script with a fellow PA while working on the set of 1997’s Flubber. Months later, the PA showed the screenplay to a director, who in turn showed it to his development executive, who showed it to a story editor at DreamWorks. That story editor asked to meet with Morgan, helping him score representation and putting him on the path to a writing career.

Fast and the Furious Five hits theaters on April 29th, and stars Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, Matt Schulze, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, Tego Calderon, Don Omar, Joaquim de Almeida, Dwayne Johnson, Elsa Pataky, Michael Irby, Fernando Chien, Alimi Ballard, Yorgo Constantine, Geoff Meed, Joseph Melendez, Jeirmarie Osorio, Mark Hicks, Esteban Cueto, Corey Michael Eubanks, and Luis Da Silva Jr.

In the film, Dominic (Vin Diesel) and his crew find themselves on the wrong side of the law once again, as they try to switch lanes between a ruthless drug lord and a relentless federal agent.