John Schneider, the former star of TV’s ‘Dukes of Hazzard’, has expressed a desire to be a part of the Fast & Furious franchise. Having previously been linked with a car racing film project with the late actor Paul Walker, he has said he would be “very interested” in joining the Furious cast.

The franchise’s ever-present star Vin Diesel confirmed the existence of plans for an eighth movie last week, with a release pencilled in for April 2017. Schneider, who played Bo Duke in the popular TV series, admitted a role for him “would make sense because ‘Dukes…’ really paved the way for films like Fast & Furious. I'd be very interested in joining the cast.”

John SchneiderJohn Schneider of 'Dukes of Hazzard'

Schneider, 55, was speaking to World Entertainment News Network (WENN) and added that he had come close to hiring Paul Walker for his video-on-demand project Collier & Co: Hot Pursuit a number of years ago when it was scheduled to be a conventional release before funding collapsed. Forced to finance it himself, he could no longer afford Walker.

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“We came close and I would have loved to have worked with Paul. There was some talk before the tragic event that claimed his life that I would be playing Paul's nemesis in a Fast & Furious movie. I would have been very interested. Everyone thought Paul and I should get together. The stunt co-ordinator on my film worked on the latest Fast & Furious film and he thought we'd get on well.”

Walker, of course, sadly died in a car crash in November 2013, halfway through shooting his parts for the seventh Fast & Furious movie. The project was finished with the co-operation of Walker’s brothers Cody and Caleb who completed his parts, and was released worldwide in April.

Furious 7 has been a rip-roaring success, currently still at the top of the box offices four weeks after its theatrical release. Even its soundtrack reached the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart a fortnight ago powered by the success of Wiz Khalifa’s ‘See You Again’, itself a global chart topper.

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