Corona | Coming Attractions

Cinematographer Ericson Core will direct the new XXX sequel. The Return of Xander Cage will be the third theatrical film that Core worked on as the director after the 2006 Mark Wahlberg movie Invincible and a forthcoming Richard Gere drama called The Prodigy.

Core first worked with Vin Diesel on the first Fast and Furious film as that film's director of photography. As a producer on the new XXX film Diesel had to sign off on Core.

Latino Review asked Mr. ScriptShadow to come and do a guest review of XXX: The Return of Xander Cage. Secrets from the story were laid bare, assessments on the viability of this project for Vin Diesel's movie career were made and a verdict appraised on the screenplay. "And to be honest, the story in XXX 2 is too generic," writes ScriptShadow. "This is what I don't get about high profile summer pics. You know people are going to show up.  100 million bucks in advertising will ensure that. So why not take some chances and do something different with the story? Try new things. Experiment a little." Sounds like something your college girlfriend would claim to have done, doesn't it?

Read the full review.

Rob Cohen has decided to drop out of directing the XXX sequel in favor of helming the period actioner Medieval. "It was a tough decision about XXX, " Cohen told Variety. "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."

Cohen wants to have Medieval rolling in front of camera come October.

The writing duo of John Brancato and Michael Ferris are in talks to write the screenplay for the new XXX movie. According to Variety the Terminator Salvation scribes pitched their idea for the return of Xander Cage this past Friday to the presidents of Columbia Pictures. That said, no deal has been finalized yet.

A third XXX movie is now in development at Columbia Pictures which would bring back Vin Diesel as extreme sports star-turned-secret agent Xander Cage. The nascent project, titled XXX: The Return of Xander Cage, has the interest of both Diesel as well as Rob Cohen, the director of the first XXX. However, before contracts are ironed out between the studio and the star and director, Columbia is in negotiations with franchise producer Joe Roth. It was his company, Revolution Studios, made the first two films. A deal between Roth and Columbia needs to be formalized first before talks get serious with Diesel and Cohen. No script as yet exists for the movie.

Released in 2002 the first XXX took in $142 million domestic while three years later the second film, State of the Union, which saw Ice Cube take over leading man duties from Diesel, only squeaked out $26 million in ticket sales.