There was a rumor floated recently by CineFools that Vin Diesel had dropped out of xXx: The Return of Xander Cage.  If you heard that rumor and freaked out, you can now turn red ’cause Diesel’s publicist emailed MTV and said it was untrue.  This is exactly what was said in that email:

“I made a few calls on this and I can tell you that it is completely not true.”

News has surfaced, by way of The Hollywood Reporter, stating that a new director has been found for xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, the third installment in Columbia Pictures’ action series. Last year both star Vin Diesel and Rob Cohen (director of the first installment) agreed to join forces for a third film, but in June this year Cohen bailed to direct Medieval. The new director is Ericson Core (Invincible), who’s worked with Diesel before as the Cinematographer on The Fast and the Furious.

Diesel starred in the original xXx back in 2002, but both he and director Cohen skipped the second film, xXx: State of the Union, starring Ice Cube and directed by Lee Tamahori.

Poor Vin Diesel, the man just can’t get a break. He hit the big time about a decade ago with Pitch Black. He followed that movie up with The Fast and the Furious and xXx, however he refused to star in follow-ups to these. Instead opting for The Chronicles of Riddick, a big budget sequel to Pitch Black, a film that failed to meet expectations (as well as its budget at the box office).

Following the failure of Babylon A.D. and the loss of “street cred” due to The Pacifier, Diesel is returning to the “furious” franchise next summer with Fast and Furious (the fourth film in the series), while news has come in today that the bald star and original xXx director Rob Cohen are mulling a return to the “modern Bond” franchise they started in 2002 (following Ice Cube’s disastrous sequel).