'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