‘Crime Against Cinema’: Why Vin Diesel Disappointed Steven Spielberg

Vin Diesel is one of the biggest stars of action cinema today, with several franchises on his (broad) shoulders: xXx, Riddick and of course the Fast & Furious saga, which has offered ten films to date (not including spin-offs). Hobbs & Shaw), three of which crossed the billion dollar mark at the international box office.

But many people do not know this Vin Diesel Can do much more than master spectacular stunts and drive fast cars on impossible courses. Before I really got into acting, in 1995 he made a semi-autobiographical short called Multi-Facial, which was even screened at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.

The actor not only starred, but also wrote, directed, produced, and scored the soundtrack for the 20-minute short film, which you can watch below:

And two!

After a brief unreleased appearance in the Robert De Niro and Robin Williams drama The Awakening (1990), Vin Diesel Finally made his real film debut in the low-budget drama Strays in 1997, directed again by himself, about a failed drug dealer (played by Diesel himself). The project received mixed critics and was not a great success, but it still won a famous expert: Steven Spielberg. In fact, ET’s famous father is such a fan of the feature film that he invited her Vin Diesel on the set of his flagship film Amistad to congratulate him—and to let him know he was giving her a gift: he had created a custom role for her in Saving Private Ryan, played by Private Adrian Caparzo.

Vin Diesel He should have been surprised, after all, he was a huge Spielberg fan himself and had already expressed his admiration for Indiana Jones and the Jurassic Park creator in a letter to him. He certainly got the part – though he later nearly walked off the set with the rest of the film’s cast before finally stopping Tom Hanks – but he still didn’t fulfill the legendary director’s most expensive wish…

His “crime” against cinema

In an interview with The National in 2020, Vin Diesel expressed desire Steven Spielberg As far as he is concerned, a dream that the filmmaker is still waiting to fulfill.

“Speaking of Steven Spielberg, I saw him recently and he said, “When I wrote the part for you in Saving Ryan, I was obviously hiring an actor, but I was also secretly keeping the director in you, and you weren’t.” Enough has been achieved. This is a crime against cinema and you should return to the director’s chair.”– said Diesel. “I didn’t achieve enough.”

then multifaceted and a tramp, Vin Diesel In fact, he dedicated his career to being in front of the camera, not behind it. Still, with his first feature film, he traveled to the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, where he met another young aspiring filmmaker, Jon Favreau.

Despite Spielberg’s wishes, Vin Diesel He has not yet announced any directorial projects, although he once dreamed of making an epic trilogy about the life of General Hannibal Barca. will this happen We only hope – and Steven Spielberg also !

In the meantime, find him in Saving Private Ryan streaming on Netflix and Filmo.

A similar article has already been published on our Brazilian site AdoroCinema.com.