'xXx 3' Gets a New Director

The Hollywood Reporter states that a new director has been found for xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, the third installment in Columbia Pictures’ action series. Last year both star Vin Diesel and Rob Cohen (director of the first installment) agreed to join forces for a third film, but in June this year Cohen bailed to direct "Medieval." The new director is Ericson Core ("Invincible"), who’s worked with Diesel before as the Cinematographer on "The Fast and the Furious."

Diesel starred in the original "xXx" back in 2002, but both he and director Cohen skipped the second film, "xXx: State of the Union," starring Ice Cube and directed by Lee Tamahori.

Diesel was a hot name in Hollywood at the time of "xXx," but for some reason he thought it best to skip both the sequel and two of the "Fast and the Furious" sequels in order to concentrate on "The Chronicles of Riddick." After that came the financial failure "Babylon A.D." and the family comedy "The Pacifier."

Diesel has now turned his sights back on the franchises that gave him relative success in the first place, first with "Fast & Furious" earlier this year and now with "xXx 3" (there’s also rumblings of a new Riddick movie, too). The third film will see Diesel’s “action man” Xander Cage return to the National Security Agency after an eight-year hiatus.

What do you think about a third "xXx" movie and the new director?

"xXx: The Return of Xander Cage" currently has an aimed production start date of sometime early next year, and doesn’t have a release date yet.

More news to come! Catch ya' later!
Source: Screen Rant

'xXx' Loses Director to the Middle Ages

Director Rob Cohen backed out of reteaming with Vin Diesel on "xXx: The Return of Xander Cage" for Sony. Instead, he has signed a deal to helm an event-sized action film "Medieval" for New Regency (which is being produced by McG).

"It was a tough decision about 'XXX,' " Cohen said. "I talked to Vin over the weekend and said I hoped they would wait, but that if they find another director who's right for the sequel, I certainly wouldn't be angry. But I could not let something like this go."

The “something” he is talking about is an event-sized action film with a plot that is being kept quiet, but Cohen tells Variety the film is "The Magnificent Seven" in the Middle Ages. Alex Litvak and Michael Finch penned the script and hope is to get the film into production by October.

Rob Cohen is a definite hit-or-miss director and depending on your taste in films I would say he most often falls on the “miss” side of things with such recent releases as "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" and "Stealth." However, I don’t mind watching his original "Fast and the Furious" installment or even the first "xXx."

More news to come! Catch ya' later!
Sources: Variety, Rope of Silicon

Vin Diesel and His Next 4 Films

At a press junket for his latest film "Fast and Furious," Vin Diesel spoke about his hopes and ideas for his next four movies.

Paul (Walker) mentioned you had ideas about a 'Fast and Furious 5,' about how it could go to Europe. Are you already thinking, after this opens, that...

Vin: Yes. Yes. I think a few pictures at a time ahead. I try to work out stories in the way I approach sequels. In that, Coppola way. I try to think out the story, even before we go to shoot the film that's at hand. So yes, I have been thinking about it. I actually brought up the idea of shooting both of the movies back to back to the President of Universal. He was like, "What? We're just getting our feet back together."

If this movie is a big hit, will it finally enable you to get 'Hannibal' off the ground?

Vin: We hope, right? In theory, yes. To be 100% honest, I think the studio might be a little bit, and I can understand, apprehensive about giving me a budget that big to direct. So the question has been, and is what probably has held the film back from being realized, "Do I have to direct it?"

And?

Vin: I would ask you that. Do I have to direct it or, do I produce it, get my voice on it, you know, put my mojo on it, and let someone else direct it that the studio would feel comfortable with with that size budget.



The third 'Riddick,' you've been talking about that being a Ramboesque, bare bones smaller scale Riddick. Would that close the trilogy? Or are you planning a third Riddick after that?

Vin: I talked about Riddick as being 'The Fellowship' in the Tolkien series. I was using 'Pitch Black' as 'The Hobbit,' as an independent story that introduces you to the world of Middle Earth, and then taking 'The Chronicles of Riddick' and treating it as a trilogy that goes from the story that you saw, to the Underverse, and ultimately to Furia in the third film.

You said David is currently writing the third right now?

Vin: He's currently writing the third. It's hot. But to answer your question, about the scaled down aspect. Yes, there is a scaled down portion of this that goes back to the 'Pitch Black' style. So if you think of 'Pitch Black' as an introduction to the world, and you think of 'Lord of the Rings,' and I'm just using this as a parallel, you think of it as a trilogy, you would think of 'Chronicles of Riddick' as the first in a trilogy.

And what about reviving Xander Cage? How would they do that since they blew your scalp off?

Vin: Ha! Rob Cohen found a way to incorporate that into the story years ago, and he's just now able to implement it.



Will a 'XXX 3' happen you think?

Vin: Should I do it?

Ya.

Vin: That's all I need to hear!

After the junket was over, Vin still talked about 'Hannibal.' Should he direct it? Should he let someone else do it?

He said, "If it's in service of telling a great story, Because at the end of the day, you just want to see an incredible Hannibal. And you'd hope, that even if I'm not directing it, all of the work, the development that's been put into it will shine and that you will see that, and that it will speak to you. And the message and the integrity behind the story, and the passion that I've held on to, and that you know has driven me in the hope of telling that story, is present. The question is, how can I maintain that, and make a studio feel comfortable."

Diesel has his plate full for the next couple of years if the sequels work out. "Hannibal the Conqueror" will star Vin Diesel as the Carthaginian general who led an elephant-riding battalion across the Alps to attack Rome in the 3rd Century B.C. It won't be about the Hannibal from "Silence of the Lambs" (Some people think it will just because of the name).

More news to come! Catch ya' later!
Source: Latino Review

xXx and Fast & Furious

xXx is an interestingly titled movie that came out in 2002 starring Vin Diesel. A sequel later came out in 2005 called xXx: State of the Union, starring Ice Cube.
Both films also co-starred Samuel L. Jackson.

After starring in the flop Babylon A.D., Diesel is set to hit it big in theaters with two new movies that are sequels. Fast and Furious, fourth film in the franchise, returns to the roots of the first film with both Diesel and Paul Walker returning to reprise their roles from the classics road racing flick. Diesel will also be reprising his previous role from xXx in the new film directed by Rob Cohen (who directed both the first Fast and the Furious and xXx).

xXx III.

"Yes, they're doing it with me and producer Joe Roth," Rob Cohen said. “We made the deal recently, it's named xXx: The Return of Xander Cage. We met the writers yesterday and we're trying to get into production by late spring, to have it out for the summer of 2010."

Cohen recently directed the film The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.


Fast and Furious comes out June 12, 2009.