Move over, 007, there’s a new secret agent in town. But Xander Cage, or XXX as his friends and enemies know him, with his tattooed bod, rippling muscles, shaven head and leering grin, is no ultra-suave English superspy. He’s one badass dude with a badass ‘tude. Forget the shaken-not-stirred martini; he’s the kind of guy who’d drink Jack Daniels straight from the bottle and growl lines like “What I’m gonna do for my country” at the women he beds with a gravelly snarl instead of a classy British accent. He’s Bond for the next generation.
Word is that Vin Diesel made a cool $10 million to take on the titular role in XXX, reteaming with his The Fast and the Furious director and producer for this rumored $50 million action flick that’s intended to be the first in the XXX franchise (a sequel is already in the works, but Revolution Studios reps are mum on the subject).
The latest XXX trailer makes its debut this weekend attached to Minority Report, so make sure to get there in time to catch it. In the meantime, read on for a little taste of what’s to come later this summer.
Not your daddy’s spy flick
Diesel plays Xander Cage, codename XXX, a former criminal unwillingly recruited by the National Security Agency (yes, it’s a real U.S. crime-fighting organization) to infiltrate a group of Czech radical extremists led by a nihilistic figure named Yorgi (Marton Czokas). They hope to destroy governments around the world, and if they destroy the world–and themselves–in the process, so be it; to that end, they are trying to poison water supplies with a deadly chemical called “Silent Night.” Yorgi leads XXX on a globetrotting cat-and-mouse hunt on which he encounters double and triple agents, beautiful women and lots and lots of action.
So ya say this movie’s got a lotta action?
And how. But filmmakers are happy to say that much of the stunt work was practical rather than CGI or blue screen. Diesel trained for months before the shoot to get in shape to do many of his own stunts, including the one in the trailer in which he flies through the air on a motorcycle as squibs explode around him. He also performs water stunts that take place during an underwater sequence at the climax of the film. (No comment, however, on the death of an American stuntman in Prague, who was killed when his paraglider hit the side of a bridge).
Prague in winter is cold, but not that cold
The cast and crew spent three wintry months shooting in Prague, but the unit publicist says that was nothing compared to the brief time they spent shooting at Lake Piru an hour or so north of Los Angeles. “We spent 10 cold nights and one very warm day there,” he says. “The nights were colder than Prague.”
But Prague’s pretty cool, anyway
For a change, Prague actually stars as Prague in this film, rather than starring as some other Gothic European city, but audiences won’t just see the city’s eerie gargoyles and oft-photographed Charles Bridge, they’ll get a glimpse of some really atmospheric interior scenes as well. In fact, the movie’s opening scene, in which the hardcore German industrial group Rammstein performs at a club, was shot in a crumbling small town Czech church that had the crew had to reinforce so it wouldn’t collapse around them.
Bond doesn’t have these, but he should
Production designer Gavin Bocquet (Star Wars – Episode I and II) designed a special hydrofoil that turns into a submarine dubbed “Ahab” that looks like something out of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Xander’s high-tech dart gun is nifty too, as are the X-ray goggles he tests out on a female agent’s clothing (um, they work).
[PAGEBREAK]
What’s a “fringe” screenwriter?
Screenwriter Rich Wilkes (who includes in his credits Airheads and The Jerky Boys movie) is described by the film’s unit publicist as an “edgy” writer “on the fringe” who writes about subjects he knows firsthand. This does not mean, however, that he is a criminal-turned-secret agent, only that he’s into extreme sports, listens to hard music and dyes his hair. Gotcha.
Those co-starring femmes fatale
Yelena, the lead female who may or may not be a baddie, is played by Asia Argento, whose first name looks like it should sound like the continent but is actually pronounced “Ah-zee-ya” (news also to many on the production). Co-star Eve, who plays Xander’s crony, worked as a table dancer/stripper before becoming a rapper and now actress.
The tunes
Although we don’t have official confirmation, we suspect the aforementioned Rammstein and Eve will appear on the soundtrack, as well as techno group Orbital, which also appears in one of the movie’s club scenes. It’ll be out before the movie, sometime after July 20.
Now for the burning question. What about that XXX tattoo on the back of Vin’s neck?!
Diesel has plenty of ink, but the one on his neck ain’t real. “We didn’t pay Vin enough,” laughs a Revolution Studios rep. However, Diesel and makeup artist Clinton Wayne worked on the tattoo together and got what started as a three-hour process (resulting in a very early call time for the actor) down to about an hour and a half.
XXX will hit theaters everywhere on Aug. 9
