While not every project in Hollywood actually comes to fruition, despite the years of development put into it, there are a few projects that Vin Diesel has been attached to for some time that he remains focused on getting made.  It may have taken nine years, but the Chronicles of Riddick follow-up Riddick finally came to pass last year, and now Diesel says he’s tackling two long-talked-about projects in the near future.  Steve recently spoke with Diesel in anticipation of the release of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, in which he voices Groot, and the actor revealed his next three projects.  After the fantasy-actioner The Last Witch Hunter, which Diesel is making next, the actor says he will move on to Kojak, followed by xXx 3.

Hit the jump for more, including news on the addition of Michael Caine to The Last Witch Hunter and a status update on the long-developing Hannibal.

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peaking with Steve, Diesel said he’s getting ready to start shooting The Last Witch Hunter, which has added Michael Caine to the cast:

“I’m about to do a movie with Breck Eisner called The Last Witch Hunter where I play a 700-year-old New Yorker, which should be a lot of fun.  Working opposite Michael Caine will be a blast. I’ve always wanted to work with Michael Caine so it’ll be the first time I get to work with Michael Caine.  Rose Leslie is also gonna be opposite me, she’s amazing in Game of Thrones.”

And then, Diesel says he’s finally going to make Kojak:

“Then I will do Kojak for Universal, which is gonna be really exciting.”

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Diesel has been attached to lead a feature film adaptation of the 1970s crime series Kojak for some time now, most recently saying he wanted Ang Lee to direct.  We have no further information on the project, but according to Diesel, it will be his next film after The Last Witch Hunter.  The original series starred Telly Savalas as the titular New York City police detective who had a hankering for lollipops.

After Kojak, Diesel somewhat surprisingly said he’ll be returning to the xXx franchise for a third film:

“I am going to do the next xXx which will be filming in part in the Philippines, which I’m very, very, very excited about.”

The last solid update we had about xXx 3 was back in 2012, but it appears that Diesel is still keen on leading another entry in the series.  The actor starred in the 2002 original film as an extreme sport athlete-turned-spy for director Rob Cohen, and the pic was followed by xXx: State of the Union in 2005 with Ice Cube taking over the lead role.  Again, we haven’t heard anything about xXx 3 in years, but Diesel seems pretty confident that the film is happening, going so far as to give a specific shooting location.

And finally, Diesel added that he hasn’t given up on bringing his passion project, a biopic of Carthaginian military commander Hannibal, to the screen:

“And of course, the trilogy of Hannibal, the thing I’m most precious about and the thing that keeps me—it was just my birthday a couple of days ago and I woke up and I started to count my blessings, as we all do on our birthday, we count our blessing and then we think ‘How can I grow as a person, and how can I improve?’  And then I immediately went to, ‘I haven’t made Hannibal yet.’”

Watch this portion of Steve’s video interview with Diesel below, and look for more on Collider soon:

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