VinDiesel

Now that a new entry into the Chronicles of Riddick saga is no longer just a dream project for Vin Diesel fans, details are slowly but surely making their way to the surface. It started with news that writer-director David Twohy would be returning along with Diesel, progressed a bit with out-of-context concept art (as seen here) and now thanks to Shock Till You Drop, we have an official synopsis for Riddick (as it is currently called):

"Betrayed by his own kind and left for dead on a desolate planet, Riddick (Diesel) fights for survival against alien predators and becomes more powerful and dangerous than ever before. Soon bounty hunters from throughout the galaxy descend on Riddick only to find themselves pawns in his greater scheme for revenge. With his enemies right where he wants them, Riddick unleashes a vicious attack of vengeance before returning to his home planet of Furya to save it from destruction."

So, really, it doesn't sound all that divergent from what we've seen in the previous two films, but I guess Riddick fighting aliens on desolate planets followed by other various acts of badassery is probably what people expect from the franchise. But what say you? What do you want to see in a new Riddick film?

From Cinematical:

What do you do when Hollywood won't give you a leading role unless it's in a film you already starred in? Well, if you're Vin Diesel, you put your head down, thank God you managed to survive as an actor for this long, and take those horrible sequels like a man. Not only is Diesel getting ready to star in sequels for XxX and Fast and the Furious, but now he's leaping over to another dead franchise hoping to breathe a little more life into it and his career.

Variety tells us Diesel has signed to produce and star in a third installment of his Riddick franchise, with David Twohy taking on writing and directing duties after previously penning and helming both Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick. No storyline has been revealed yet, though some claim this sequel will nudge closer to the more successful (with fans, anyway) Pitch Black by focusing on the character of Riddick rather than the universe he inhabits. After he's done with Riddick, Fast and the Furious 5 and XxX (2? 3? 4? Where are we on this one?), one imagines Diesel will then move on down the list to see what other previously successful Vin Diesel films he can sequelize -- most notably, The Pacifier, which earned roughly $113 million at the box office. Then, hopefully, we'll get to see Diesel team up with The Rock in a film that combines the action and the family-friendly; perhaps something like Santa Clause vs. Chanukah Harry: To The Death!

Which Diesel sequel are you looking forward to most?

So...has it come to this? Am I really writing a post based on a Facebook status update? Looks like I am, because the update comes via Vin Diesel himself:

"The Riddick team is in New Zealand location scouting already...that's exciting."

He also notes that he loves "hiding in plain sight" and enjoys reading his fans' comments while on board a plane. You keep it real, Vin. You keep it real. Going back in time a few weeks, Diesel previously posted:

"The Riddick script is completed...great job DT."

Some mind-boggling sleuthing allows us to assume that DT is none other than David Twohy, writer and director of the small, clever and intense Pitch Black, which introduced the goggled, mumbling anti-hero Riddick to movie screens, as well as the big, dumb and boring The Chronicles of Riddick, which did its best to guarantee Riddick never gracing a movie screen again.

What can we take from this? They have a script. They're scouting locations. But is this movie actually going to happen? Making this film has been an uphill battle ever since The Chronicles of Riddick tanked but Twohy and Diesel obviously have a great love for the character and have previously stated that this will be a smaller film on the scale of Pitch Black. This is good news. If they cut away the bloat and place Riddick in an intense sci-fi thriller where the stakes are personal instead of "SAVING THE GALAXY FROM EVIL EMPIRE," I'd be prepared to watch Riddick again. And God knows Dielsel and Twohy could use a hit at this point.

(via Dark Horizons)

I remember thinking before The Chronicles of Riddick came out that David Twohy was on a course to become another science fiction visionary, not unlike Ridley Scott or James Cameron. It looked like a big budget, galaxy sweeping actioner, but more importantly it looked like Twohy was doing something Hollywood so rarely does: world building. It was clear his agenda with Chronicles was to transplant a character from Pitch Black, which is essentially just a creature feature, into an entire universe in which that character made sense, a universe that promised different races and different colonies on different planets. And if there is one thing big budget Hollywood is wary towards, it's difference.

Studios like a real world anchor for their tent poles and The Chronicles of Riddick had lava planets and an intergalactic cult. That's not as marketable as, say, Xbox 360s turning into killer robots or Iron Man eating a Burger King Whopper at a press conference. Which is a pitfall David Twohy seems to be acknowledging these days. Rumors of a new Riddick film / the delivery of the once planned third Riddick film, started months ago when Vin Diesel made Universal a silo of cash with Fast and Furious, but what that might entail was hazy until now.