One of the more ridiculous stories we’ve been following has been the quest to get the sequel to XXX into production. First the director and creator of the series Rob Cohen dropped out and the search was on for a director. Now it seems the star of the film Vin Diesel has dropped out as well. Filling their shoes for the sequel are Die Another Day director Lee Tamahori and Barbershop star Ice Cube.

In order to keep the franchise going it will be refocused to feature a different agent each film. To make things even more ridiculous, avoid the big James Bond-style action in favor of more psychological thrills.

Are studios really this desperate to keep a franchise going? After all, the first film was a financial disappointment. It was a terrible film. XXX was created as a vehicle for Rob Cohen to direct and Vin Diesel to star as a Gen-X James Bond. So now we have a sequel to a sucky movie with an all-new creative team, a new leading man and a new direction. And I still can’t figure out what is XXX about it.

At least the incessant hyping of Vin Diesel is over for the time being. His only film to really deliver financially was The Fast and the Furious and he was nothing more than a supporting character in that flick. And it seems the title of “The big new action star” has been usurped by The Rock. So what’s next for Vin? Riding elephants in Hannibal and spinning off sequels to Pitch Black, another mediocre movie where he was nothing more than a supporting actor.