Today, April 1, global superstar Vin Diesel, star and producer of Universal Pictures’ Furious 7, received one of Hollywood’s highest accolades, putting his handprints and footprints in cement in the world-famous forecourt of the TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX®, and became the legendary theatre’s 282nd handprint-footprint honoree. Continuing the global exploits in the unstoppable franchise built on speed, Diesel, Paul Walker and Dwayne Johnson lead the returning cast of Furious 7 (www.furious7.com), opening April 3.
James Wan directs this chapter of the hugely successful series that also welcomes back favorites Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Elsa Pataky and Lucas Black. They are joined by international action stars new to the franchise including Jason Statham, Djimon Hounsou, Tony Jaa, Ronda Rousey, Nathalie Emmanuel and Kurt Russell. Neal H. Moritz, Diesel and Michael Fottrell return to produce the film written by Chris Morgan.
A native of New York City, Diesel has become one of Hollywood’s most sought-after film stars. In addition to his huge box-office success, Diesel is a prominent producer and filmmaker. Later this year, Diesel will star in The Last Witch Hunter, which he also produced. He most recently headlined and produced the third chapter in
The Chronicles of Riddick franchise, Riddick.
In 2013, Diesel was seen in Fast & Furious 6, the sixth installment of the blockbuster Fast & Furious franchise, as well as Fast Five (2011) and Fast & Furious (2009). He wore multiple hats on all three projects as he reprised his role as Dominic Toretto and produced the films, along with Neal H. Moritz. He also wrote and directed the original short film Los Bandoleros. The short, which was showcased on the Fast & Furious DVD, tells the intriguing back story of the characters and events leading up to the explosive oil-truck heist in the film.
Another endeavor in Diesel’s entrepreneurial rise was the creation of his successful video game company, Tigon Studios, which created and produced 2004’s top-selling Xbox game, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay.
Diesel previously starred alongside Michelle Yeoh in 20th Century Fox’s Babylon A.D., for director Mathieu Kassovitz. In this thriller, Diesel played a veteran-turned-mercenary who takes the high-risk job of escorting a woman from Russia to China. He is unaware that she is carrying an organism that a cult wants to harvest to produce a genetically modified messiah.
Diesel was also seen in the courtroom drama Find Me Guilty, directed by renowned filmmaker Sidney Lumet. Set in the ’80s, the film documents the famous three-year trial of 20 members of a mob family. Diesel earned critical acclaim for his portrayal of Jackie DiNorscio, the one mobster who chose to forgo his rights to an attorney and defended himself. To play this role, Diesel transformed himself into the 47-year-old Italian mobster by putting on 20 pounds.
Diesel will play the title role in Hannibal the Conqueror, which tells the story of the Carthaginian general who rode an elephant across the Alps to attack Rome in the third century B.C. In addition to this film, Diesel’s One Race Films will produce Hannibal the Barbarian, a children’s animated series based on the stories of Hannibal, for the BET network. Diesel’s future projects include Touchstone’s Player’s Rule. The film, written by Ron Bass and Jen Smolka, will be Diesel’s first role as the lead in a romantic comedy. Diesel will star in The Wheelman, which is in development by MTV Films, Paramount Pictures and One Race Films. Diesel’s Tigon Studios and Midway Games will collaborate to release the film and video game simultaneously.
Diesel starred in his first comedy feature for Disney, The Pacifier, opposite Faith Ford, Brad Garrett, Lauren Graham and Brittany Snow. The 2005 film, directed by Adam Shankman, followed an undercover agent who, after failing to protect an important government scientist, learns that the scientist’s family is in danger. In an effort to redeem himself, he agrees to take care of the man’s children-only to discover that child care is his toughest mission yet. The Pacifier was a huge box-office success.
In the highly anticipated science-fiction feature The Chronicles of Riddick, Diesel reprised the title role of Richard B. Riddick. Produced by One Race Films, it was the follow-up to the cult favorite Pitch Black. Diesel previously starred in the action-thriller A Man Apart, which he also produced.
Topping Diesel’s list of credits is his star turn in 2001’s The Fast and the Furious, for which he won an MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Team, along with co-star Paul Walker, and was nominated for Best Male Performance. He starred in the blockbuster XXX, which he also executive produced. Diesel appeared in Saving Private Ryan, for which he was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the film’s ensemble cast. His other credits include roles in Boiler Room the action-thriller A Man Apart, which he also produced;and the voice of the title character in The Iron Giant, which won an Annie Award for Best Animated Feature.
Diesel wrote, produced, directed and starred in the independent short Multi-Facial, which explored the issue of being multiracial in today’s society. The film follows Diesel, whose biological mother is Caucasian and biological father is African-American, on several auditions in which he is told he is either “too black” or “too white” for the part. It was after seeing this short at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival that director Steven Spielberg created the role of Private Adrian Caparzo in Saving Private Ryan specifically for Diesel.
Diesel wrote, produced, directed and starred in the full-length feature Strays, which he described as a “multicultural Saturday Night Fever.” The drama was selected to compete at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival.
