'Fast and Furious' Friday

Don't try this at a roundabout near you.OK, I guess I have another reason to catch "Death Race" this coming weekend. JoBlo.com reports the film will have a two-minute trailer for the fourth installment in the "Fast and Furious" franchise attached to it.

I was never a fan of the series until I saw the third one, "F&F: Tokyo Drift." It was actually the first F&F I'd ever seen, because the trailers for both "The Fast and the Furious" and the cheesily named sequel "2 Fast 2 Furious" made me yawn.

I went back and rented the first two movies after seeing "Tokyo Drift" and discovered I hadn't missed much.

Fortunately, the fourth film (called, simply, "Fast and Furious") features Justin Lin as its director and Chris Morgan as its screenwriter. Lin and Morgan are the guys that helped "Tokyo Drift" to not suck, and the lengthy two-minute trailer should provide a strong hint at whether they've continued in that tradition of nonsuckitude.

Diesel-powered prequel
Vin Diesel (returning to the series after a "Tokyo Drift" cameo), recently told ComingSoon.net he is directing a 20-minute prequel to "Fast and Furious" which will star some actors from the whole F-ing F&F series. There was no word on how the prequel will be distributed (TV, DVD, online only, beamed directly into our minds by microwave transmission?)

"Fast and Furious" is due out June 5, 2009.

(Jorge Sosa is a staff writer for the Hutchinson Leader. He can be reached at sosa@hutchinsonleader.com)