Though you may not know it to look at him now, muscleman Vin Diesel was quite the geek when he was younger (a Dungeons & Dragons geek, to be precise). So it should come as no surprise that he has a thing for sci-fi movies. As we just recently heard, he’s going to play an extraterrestrial tree in Guardians of the Galaxy, he’ll soon be slicing up alien nasties over in Riddick, and then there was Fast & Furious 6 which broke so many laws of physics during its action sequences, that it’s the most science-fictiony movie he’s ever made!
That’s apparently not enough for Diesel though, as he’s already lined up his next sci-fi project that will see him fighting space orcs!
According to THR, Diesel has signed up to star in and produce Soldiers of the Sun, a new potential sci-fi franchise starter from Universal Pictures. Penned by rapidly rising screenwriter Arash Amel, who wrote the upcoming Nicole Kidman starring Grace Kelly biopic Grace of Monaco as well an in development Ingrid Bergman biopic, Soldiers of the Sun seems to be mixing together elements of sci-fi and classic legend, as it is “set in a post-apocalyptic future and focuses on a squad of soldiers that searches for a fabled city of gold while on a tour of duty in Mexico liberating it from an alien race known as Orcs.”
So essentially Kelly’s Heroes in a messed up Mexico with laser guns and E.T.’s instead of Nazis? Yeah, I can dig it.
As is hinted at in the plot description, Universal is envisioning this as an ensemble vehicle, much like Diesel’s Fast & Furious franchise (the latest installment of which is now hovering just below the $800 million mark), so expect a whole lot of names to still get attached to this. It’s uncertain when this will go into production though, as Diesel still has to do his voice-work for Guardians of the Galaxy, will soon start on Fast & Furious 7 and still has Breck “The Crazies” Eisner’s The Last Witch Hunter also in the pipeline.
PS: And now, thanks to the whole aliens and city of gold thing, I’m going to have this song in my head all day.
PPS: Vin Diesel could totally be a grown up Tao.
Last Updated: August 16, 2013
Justin Hess
August 16, 2013 at 15:55
That actually sounds bloody. It’s a whole mish-mash of genres which could be cool