Before his career hit a bump in the mid-00s, Vin Diesel was looking like the next big action star, his generation's answer to Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone. At the height of his power, he started talking up his dream project: the story of Hannibal of Carthage, the daring general who marched across the Alps to challenge the Roman Empire. After lying dormant for quite some time, it looks like this historical epic may have life in it yet.

With Diesel back on the rise, thanks to the increasingly lucrative (and amazing) 'Fast and Furious' series and the upcoming release of 'Riddick,' it looks like his dream of playing one of history's greatest generals is still very much alive. In a Facebook post, Diesel teased that the recent good times may allow him to finally get this passion project in front of cameras:

Both, the successful completion of Our second Fast trilogy and the new Riddick, have somehow gotten us closer to the dream... Hannibal the Conqueror!

When the project was first being thrown around, Diesel wanted to direct the film as well as star in it, with the idea of turning this into a trilogy. At this juncture, we have no idea if he still wants to sit behind the camera or if he just wants to recruit a talented director to make it all happen. In any case, he must be pleased that he can at least talk about this film again after disasters like 'The Chronicles of Riddick' and 'Babylon A.D.' temporarily derailed his career.

"I was just looking at a script, 10 years old, by David Franzoni, that was my first 'Hannibal' draft," Diesel told EW of the project back in May of this year. "To think that 10 years later, we’re still marching towards the Alps is surreal. Now, after Universal’s seen me produce this 'Fast' trilogy, they are much more cautious about letting [the Hannibal] trilogy go to another studio. Now they feel like: 'This is the trilogy guy, this is the guy who thinks in trilogies, he can do that.' There is another studio that’s saying they want to do all three films, do the trilogy."

Of course, a star trying to excite his fans is far from actual confirmation that a movie is getting made, but we'll see what happens. If Diesel's been keeping it alive for this long, he surely isn't going to let it die now. Not to mention the fact that the story of Hannibal (not to be confused with Dr. Lecter) is a tremendous story that deserves the cinematic treatment. Now, it's all about the waiting game. Let's see how 'Riddick' does at the box office.