More CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK Offically Fueled by Diesel

I remember the good, ol’ days (this would be early 2000) when hardly anyone knew who Vin Diesel was and the character Riddick from PITCH BLACK was one of the ultimate anti-heroes.  Jump forward 4 1/2 years to THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK, a PG-13, sci-fi epic that pretty much dispelled any badassery PITCH BLACK built up both in the character and the world he lived in.  I don’t want to say the film was bad.  It just didn’t live up to potential.

Now leap forward another 6 years.  Vin Diesel, according to Variety, has officially signed on to play Riddick in a third franchise outing, tentatively titled RIDDICK.  David Twohy, the man behind the first, two films, will also return to write and direct this installment, and there is definitely some conflict on whether this is a good thing or a bad thing.   The report says sources close to the project are saying the third film would be more in line tonally with PITCH BLACK than CHRONICLES, and that is definitely a positive.

Shooting dates are being worked around Diesel’s return to the FAST AND THE FURIOUS franchise.   Universal is handling all domestic distribution on the new film despite THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK pulling in $116 million worldwide against a $105-million budget.   Expect the budget on the next film to be closer to the $23 million spend on PITCH BLACK.