‘Furious 7’ Stars Invade Late Night Shows Leading to ‘Furious 7’s’ Premiere
This is a rather unusual promotion: Disney-owned ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live will have four of the biggest stars from Universal's biggest tentpole of the year, Furious 7 next week, according to Deadline.
Also in a rare setup, Jimmy Kimmel will have one Furious 7 leading man every night Monday through Thursday, leading to the film's April 3 opening: Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham and Kurt Russell.
Meanwhile, there will be two Furious 7 cast members on the late-night shows of Universal sibling NBC: The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon has Jordana Brewster on Friday - after the movie will have opened - and Late Night With Seth Meyers will have Ludacris on Wednesday.
Some of the reasons likely are logistical as Furious 7's premiere is Wednesday at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Kimmel is based in Los Angeles, while both The Tonight Show and Late Night are in New York, and big-name guests generally don't double-book two 11:30 PM broadcast shows the same week. Still, it seems odd that NBC Universal is missing out on this potential late-night synergy.
To be fair, Diesel was on Tonight Show just last month and debuted the first Furious 7 trailer on the NBC late-night talker, and Johnson is hosting Saturday Night Live. Additionally, Fallon had Ludacris and Ronda Rousey on this show this week.
Furious 7 will mark the final appearance of Paul Walker, who died on November 30, 2013 with filming only half-completed. After Walker's death, filming was delayed for script re-writes, and his brothers Caleb and Cody Walker were used as stand-ins to complete his remaining scenes. Furious 7 is set for release on April 3, 2015 and will be released in 3D internationally.