Writers chosen for XXX: The Return of Xander Cage

Michael Ferris and John Brancato, who wrote the upcoming Terminator Salvation, are in talks to pen a script for another sequel. The pair are negotiating to write XXX: The Return of Xander Cage, which will reunite Vin Diesel with director Rob Cohen, according to Variety.

The writing duo, who also wrote Terminator 3 and the upcoming Jonathan Mostow thriller The Surrogates, pitched their take on the sequel to Columbia Pictures last week, and immediately began talks.

The 2002 original was directed by Cohen, and starred Diesel as an extreme sports enthusiast, who is drafted by the government for a dangerous covert mission. The first sequel, XXX: State of the Union, starred Ice Cube, and was directed by Die Another Day helmed Lee Tamahori.

Film Fetish Trivia: New Zealand-born Lee Tamahori is attached The Devil’s Double, which is due in theaters in 2010. The film tells the story of Latif Yahia, an Iraqi Army lieutenant who was stationed on the Iranian border, who is summoned to Saddam Hussein’s inner sanctum where he is given a choice: become the body double of Saddam’s son Uday, or die.