De grote flop van 2017 die de titel xXx: Return of Xander Cage draagt is inmiddels in de Nederlandse bioscopen te zien en ook in de US zal deze dit weekeinde op het witte doek schitteren. Dus is er nog een klein media offensief gaande om mensen te laten warm lopen. Zo had de regisseur D.J. Caruso een interview met de website Coming Soon en daar van kan je hier onder een kleine stukje lezen.

ComingSoon.net: You've got a huge cast and quite a number of main characters. How did you balance that, allowing everyone their moment?

D.J. Caruso: Well, that was the thing I lost the most sleep over. You have this incredibly great cast and I was always thinking, you have to make sure - obviously Xander has his moments and Serena (Padukone) is out in the forefront and you have Xiang, Donnie Yen, but how do I really get all these other characters to pop? So I worked closely with the writer [F. Scott Frazier] to make sure we could give them character moments and maximize the character moments within those scenes. And then, like, allowing Kris Wu to be Kris Wu and letting his character pop out. Ruby is just amazing and Nina - so it was really making sure the narrative drive of that would allow for them to shine. But honestly, that was the scariest thing. And honestly, they're all used to being number one or two on the call sheet! [laughs]

ComingSoon.net: One thing that really struck me about the film is that, unlike a lot of action films, you really had a 50/50 split between male and female leads. Was that a deliberate choice?

D.J. Caruso: I would say it was a conscious choice. It was a real conscious choice to really define and make the women strong. Once Vin was on board with this team, the people he [Xander] would have met over the past, other people that Sam [Jackson who plays NSA Agent Augustus Eugene Gibbons, head of the xXx team], it really just sort of allowed us to write these characters in a way where these are extreme people. They're equal to Xander. So it didn't really matter, gender. It just mattered that she was a great sniper or she was a great BMX rider, she was doing this. So we just went off and wrote. I'm a dad and I have two young girls. You just start to think that you have a responsibility in a way, not to - I think the expectation of this movie was macho, Xander Cage, you know, the way he was, and that was sort of campy and fun in the day, but I think that's the difference between the first xXx and where we are now, is that we're equal, whether it's gender, race, whatever. It doesn't really matter. They all got their due.