AceShowbiz -

Columbia Pictures washes its hands of the new "XXX" movie. The studio which has made the first two movies and planned another installment titled "XXX: State of the Union" in the last few years has decided not to go forward with the upcoming project.

But fear not, because Xander Cage will still return to the big screen. According to Deadline Hollywood, there is negotiation underway for Paramount Pictures to take over the franchise, finance production and distribution rights of the third film.

A script for the movie has been written by Michael Ferris and John Brancato, who were hired by Columbia. Vin Diesel and Samuel L. Jackson are set to reprise their roles as Cage and Cage's handler. Rob Cohen will also return to the directing seat after leaving the project in 2009. Joe Roth and Neal Moritz will produce, joined by Diesel and Samantha Vincent through his One Race Productions banner.

The story will follow Cage who "is left for dead, but returns to execute a very difficult assignment that only he can pull off." The next installment of the "XXX" film franchise will be shot with 3-D cameras, soon after Diesel wraps his other film "Fast Five". Deadline Hollywood further reports that action sequence of the upcoming sport extreme movie will mostly take place in Europe and Paramount expects to release the flick in late 2011 or early 2012.