Vin Diesel on the Hunt for a New Elephant  3/14/06

Vin Diesel is on the hunt for a new elephant following the death of his beloved co-star in upcoming historical epic Hannibal. The XXX star grew extremely fond of African elephant Timbo while making the epic story about the soldier who led an army across the Alps in 200BC. 

He says, "The great thing about riding Timbo is when I was thinking of playing Hannibal, a large source of that confidence came from being able to ride this giant African elephant that didn't allow anyone other than his trainer to ride him. "Elephants kill their trainers more than any other animal so they can be very dangerous; an African elephant can be all the more dangerous. 

"I can't think of a better day I've had in the last five years than riding elephants. "Timbo passed away this last year, which was unfortunate because he was cast in the movie as CURUS, Hannibal's elephant and he was the perfect elephant. We've spent the year trying to find an elephant of his worth, his stature. If you look at an elephant and he isn't full grown they look anorexic so we need a fully mature elephant."