It’s no secret that I’m not a fan of Vin Diesel. Flat out, the guy can’t act. Period. Others may disagree, and that’s fine, but I’ve yet to be impressed by any performance he’s given… and yes, that includes his flat performance in Saving Private Ryan (although to be fair, I honestly didn’t think he was bad in “Find Me Guilty”).
But, I’ve also kind of admired the intelligence of the man. He’s actually made some solid shrewd decisions over the last couple of years (and some bad ones), and say what you want about they guy, he pushes after his passion. One of those big passions he’s had for a couple of years now is his own movie project baby “Hannibal The Conqueror“. No no no… it’s not another Anothony Hopkins eating human flesh movie. This is actually based on the really historical military genius Hannibal. The folks at M&C give us this:
The long awaited project, “Hannibal the Conqueror,” looks to be on course for a 2008 release. A focused Vin Diesel is pushing the ball forward, hoping to capture some of the success of Gibson’s dead language hits-both “The Passion of the Christ” (Aramaic) and “Apocalypto” (Yucatec Maya), and he has initiated location scouting for his own adaptation of the life of Hannibal Barca in the archaic language of Punic, a form of ancient Phoenician.
Wow… using the ancient language too??? Ok, I’ll hand it to Vin, that’s pretty damn ambitious and ballsy of him to try. Full marks.
Am I interested that he’s also staring in this flick? Nope… I think it’s a bad move for him… especially being a first time director. In my opinion (which doesn’t mean much) he should just focus on directing it and let some other actor (with acting talent) do the role. Still… I admire the dude for doing the film and I’ll actually be rooting for it when it comes out. We’ll wait and see.
