Vin Diesel’s career is repeating itself

Vin Diesel burst onto our screens with lead roles in Pitch Black (2000), The Fast and the Furious (2001) and xXx (2002). A decade on and Diesel is once again in the driver’s seat, with Fast and Furious last year and Fast Five aiming for a 2011 release. A third xXx film is currently in production with Diesel attached, and now according to Variety he will be returning to the Chronicles of Riddick franchise:

David Twohy — who wrote and directed the first two films in the series, “Pitch Black” and “The Chronicles of Riddick” — will helm from a screenplay he penned.

Plot details are being kept under wraps. But insiders say the third outing will hew closer in tone to the cult hit “Pitch Black” and will focus on the character of Riddick as opposed to the universe he inhabits, which was the case with the critically panned “Chronicles of Riddick.” Still, “Chronicles of Riddick” earned $116 million worldwide and spawned a successful vidgame series.

Dates are being worked out for “Riddick” so as not to overlap with Universal’s fifth installment of “Fast and Furious,” which will shoot sometime this year with Diesel onboard to star and produce.

He may be playing the same roles over and over again, but at least he’s working, and at least people can get 2 hours worth of entertainment out of it.