SUBMITTED BY Kriszta

August 9, 2002 — He star of xXx has talked about Hannibal in a recent interview: "He's a character I've always wanted to play, and not unlike how Mel Gibson wanted to play the Wallace character in Braveheart" Diesel enthusiastically explains. "He redefined war strategies. He was for the 3rd century B.C. -- for that whole era -- he was the classic underdog. He was the only guy who thought of attacking Rome. And he did it in a shrewd way."

"I can go on for hours talking about how fascinating he is," adds Diesel about the legendary general who used elephants to cross the Alps in a bid to bring down the Roman Empire. The red-hot actor will begin shooting the planned epic in the spring of 2003.