Tradecraft: xXx Returns

Variety reports that Columbia is interested in reviving their xXx franchise after Lee Tamahori did his best to kill it off, as he had tried with Bond before. Vin Diesel, who once thought himself too good for sequels, has apparently changed his mind. It seems he's looking to follow up his return to the world of The Fast and the Furious (another franchise whose initial sequels he skipped out on) by reprising his xXx role as extreme athlete-cum-spy (still the single most ridiculous spy premise I've ever heard--which isn't necessarily an insult) Xander Cage. This despite the fact that Cage had been unceremoniously killed off in a special feature on the "special edition" of the first movie in order to make way for the new, "even more extreme" xXx embodied by Ice Cube in the dismal sequel! Rob Cohen, director of the first movie, has also agreed to return. I just hope they get Asia Argento back as well. I didn't care for either of the first two xXx films, but that doesn't mean I won't still fill a seat for another one. As you may have noticed, I'm a sucker for spy flicks in all their forms, and more of any of them can only be a good thing as far as I'm concerned.