Because the public have demanded it in their thousands – nay, millions – work is continuing apace on the third movie in the xXx franchise, xXx: The Return Of Xander Cage, which will reunite original director and star team, Rob Cohen and Vin Diesel.
A couple of weeks ago, Columbia announced that they had targeted Summer 2010 for the threequel, which will see extreme sports-loving secret agent Xander Cage (Diesel), um, return.
So, with a release date kinda sorta pencilled in, now would be a good time to get some writers on board – and that’s what happened today, when Michael Ferris and John Brancato entered talks to pen the third instalment.
Nothing is set yet, but things are moving quickly: the duo pitched their take on the movie to Sony on Friday, and now they’re set to write the thing. We hope that they pitched it in an XXX-treme way – perhaps by bungee jumping through the window or something.
Anyway, few details are out there on the duo’s take – things will blow up, presumably. But if you’re looking for a team to resurrect an ailing franchise, Ferris and Brancato are your guys. After all, they wrote The Net 2.0 Terminator Salvation, of which big things are expected.
As for XXX3, it is of course the third time that Diesel has returned to an old stomping ground: The Chronicles Of Riddick followed Pitch Black, and next summer will see him return to The Fast And The Furious with, erm, Fast And Furious. At this rate, expect to see Saving Private Ryan: Caparzo’s Revenge around 2011.