5 Other Vin Diesel Pet Projects
Fast X is about to get released in the cinema and is undoubtedly Vin Diesel’s most successful pet project franchise. There have been stories of him taking massive pay cuts to make some of these projects get another chance. While others haven’t managed to take off the way he had imagined. His ambition should never be questioned as he has always wanted to bring the audience a new action franchise to adore.
As always this is a list, not a ranking, so without further ado here are:
5 Others Vin Diesel Pet Projects
1 – Riddick
In the year 2000 Pitch Black was released. Vin Diesel gets to play a character named Richard B Riddick who is a dangerous escaped convict. What makes this character unique, is that he had his vision changed to see in the dark of the prison cells. Now when the crew crash land, he ends up being the only person that can guide them through the darkness to escape.
Four years later we get to see Riddick return as the lead in The Chronicles of Riddick. This time he gets to become the heroic figure in the battle against Necromongers helping lead a revolution. While this wasn’t the biggest commercial success, it did world build.
In 2006 Vin Diesel made a deal to make a cameo in Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift in exchange for the rights to the Riddick franchise. 2013 would be the year we eventually got the third and currently final chapter in the franchise. With the budget brought back nearer to the original Pitch Black, Diesel helped fund this movie with his own money. This ends up being one of the better success stories behind Vin Diesel’s commitment to an outside project.
2 – The Last Witch Hunter
The Last Witch Hunter appealed to Diesel because of his love of Dungeons and Dragons. He based his performance on one of the characters in that gaming world. You can see that this had the potential to become a franchise and there was no denying that Diesel was committed to the cause.
Unfortunately, the massive budget didn’t get double its investment, which led to the sequel never happening. I could see a sequel happening if they could produce it on about a third of the original $90 million budget.
3 – Bloodshot
Bloodshot is a comic book movie that looks to bring a character not connected to one of the two mega franchises to life. It sees a slain soldier re-animated with superpowers. While the concept seems simple enough, the ambition to bring a comic book movie out during the biggest spell of the MCU must have been a big question.
While the Box Office failed to turn a profit, it must also be remembered that this was one of the last movies released before the Covid Lockdowns. The reviews weren’t that favourable, but you feel if it had turned a profit, there was potential for more stories in this popular comic book universe.
4 – XXX
XXX was released in 2002 in an era when super spies weren’t hitting as hard as they are now. Mission Impossible 2 didn’t hit home as well as it could, and Die Another Day ended Pierce Brosnan’s run as James Bond. We needed something new, step up Xander Cage. He has a cool name and is an extreme sports star with a criminal record. This was everything a big spy action movie could have been, entertaining throughout.
The movie was a financial success and started putting Vin Diesel’s name on the map in the action genre. He had just completed Pitch Black and The Fast and the Furious, with this being his third positive moneymaking movie. However, this is where Vin made a strange decision not to make sequels and it showed with the lacklustre sequel, The Next Level. It failed at the box office and the lack of Diesel’s star power was noticeable.
In 2017 Vin Diesel returned for the third movie XXX: Return of Xander Cage. This time the budget was trimmed back, but most importantly we got a more action star cast. We got Donnie Yen, Kris Wu, Tony Jaa and Michael Bisping. Along with Bollywood superstar Deepika Padukone getting her Hollywood debut. This brought an international audience in for the movie with $300 Million of the $349 Million being from outside of the USA.
This is easily the franchise that could return for another outing and the cast could be even bigger.
5 – Babylon AD
Babylon AD was another ambitious project that had the potential for more movies. However, the director Mathieu Kassovitz classed with the studio and the movie got cut up against his will. Diesel himself laughed about how badly they cut it up and the movie barely managed to break even.
In this case, we see studio interference caused a bigger problem, but the question remains. Could we ever see Diesel return to the role of Toorop?
This has been 5 Other Vin Diesel Pet Projects. Which ones have you seen and which would you like to see a sequel to?