With multiple franchises under his belt, including FAST & FURIOUS, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, XXX, and RIDDICK, it's hard to imagine a time when Vin Diesel wasn't the face of physics-defying action and grumble-acting, but just like everyone else, Diesel had to get started somewhere.
Over twenty-five years ago, Vin Diesel wrote, directed, produced, and starred in MULTI-FACIAL, a semi-autobiographical short-film which followed a struggling multi-racial actor, as well as STRAYS, a drama about a drug dealer looking for meaning in his life. Steven Spielberg was impressed by Vin Diesel's performance in MULTI-FACIAL, and cast him in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, which helped to launch Diesel's career, but the actor hasn't stepped back to the director's car since, aside from the FAST & FURIOUS short-film LOS BANDOLEROS in 2009. While speaking with The National, Diesel stated that he recently got back in touch with Steven Spielberg, who encouraged him try his hand at directing once again.
Speaking of Steven Spielberg, I saw him recently, and he had said to me, ‘When I wrote the role for you in Saving Private Ryan, I was obviously employing the actor, but I was also secretly championing the director in you, and you have not directed enough. That is a crime of cinema and you must get back in the directing chair.' I haven’t directed enough.
Back in 1997, Vin Diesel went to the Sundance Film Festival with STRAYS, where he met Jon Favreau, who was another aspiring young filmmaker at the time. "It’s so funny, because we were both alumni at Sundance as filmmakers, and he goes off to do Lion King, Iron Man and all these great movies," Diesel said. "It’s fascinating. I kind of go ‘Steven is right.'" There is one project which Vin Diesel has wanted to make for the past two decades – the story of Hannibal Barca, the Carthaginian general who fought the ancient Romans in the Second Punic War. "I haven’t done it yet," Diesel said. "As much as I am grateful for the accomplishments, there are moments when I go ‘God, you promised the universe, very specifically, the Hannibal Barca trilogy, and you haven’t delivered it. You traveled all over the world.' I was in Egypt, in Tunisia, I was in Spain. I crossed the Alps where Hannibal did. I did so much research for this, but I still haven’t carved out the time to do it." Here's hoping that Diesel gets to make his Hannibal epic one of these days; I for one would love to see him ride an elephant off a bridge as he leaps to save his falling love interest. Make it happen.
Vin Diesel can currently be seen on the big-screen (although not for long as theaters close across the nation) in BLOODSHOT, so be sure to check out a review from our own Chris Bumbray.