Retooled Car Series Revives Summer Box Office Hopes.

LOS ANGELES -- A maxim of the movie business is that worn-out film franchises cannot be rehabilitated on the side of the road. Once sequel fatigue sets in, they have to be towed into the shop and sold for scrap or fully retooled. That is what should have happened to ''The Fast and the Furious'' car-racing series five years ago when a third installment, ''The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift,'' sputtered, selling about $62 million in tickets in North America, or 50 percent less than its predecessor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]