Vin Diesel has dropped out of the sequel to XXX - and will be replaced by Ice Cube.

Cube plays a new character who is recruited by the National Security Agency to become a XXX agent.

The sequel begins shooting in Washington DC next summer, for Die Another Day director Lee Tamahori.

Vin Diesel will star next in The Chronicles of Riddick - the follow-up to Pitch Black. It is thought he did not want to film two sequels back-to-back.

Instead, he will star in new movie Hannibal, written by Gladiator screenwriter David Franzoni, according to Variety.com.

Source: Press Release