Martial arts action star, actor Tony Jaa has had an amazing year so far. His latest venture into Hollywood with actor Vin Diesel in James Wan’s Furious Seven in April of 2015 became a billion dollar success, further setting the tone of his career growth next to his starring role alongside Dolph Lundgren in Skin Trade that same month.
Of course, this leaves room for some amazing things for Jaa whose friendship and comradery with Furious Seven star Vin Diesel has been well documented in the past several years, most specifically on Diesel’s own Facebook page. It’s the kind of friendship that opens doors for future collaborations, and with this in mind, it’s understandable that Diesel probably wants more for his fellow Furious Seven co-star who played a small key role as a villain in the film.
Evidently now, time will tell how those efforts play out now with Diesel heavily involved on both sides of the camera as actor as well as producer for director D.J. Caruso’s xXx: The Return Of Xander Cage which reportedly starts filming next month. Film Combat Syndicate has learned exclusively from Jaa’s team that the action star has been confirmed in the film following breaking news at the top of the year from Twitchfilm that Jaa and action star Jet Li were in talks to join the production. Li’s own attachment was confirmed on Tuesday.
Joining the trio are Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone, Vampire Diaries actress Nina Dobrev, Resident Evil 6 and John Wick 2 co-star and actress Ruby Rose and UFC 194 title holder Conor McGregor making his big screen debut. Actor Samuel L. Jackson is also expected to reprise his role from the first two films, ultimately reuniting with Diesel since 2002.
F. Scott Frazier is penning the script with Joe Roth and Jeff Kirschenbaum, Vin Diesel and sister/producing partner Samantha Vincent all producing with the film potentially being set up at Paramount for its release.