Vin 'Chronicles' His New Flick for Maria
December
14, 2003
'XXX' action hero VIN
DIESEL is returning to the big screen this summer
with his most spectacular production yet, 'The Chronicles of Riddick.'
Tonight on ET, get a sneak preview of the film as our own MARIA
MENOUNOS takes an exclusive tour of the futuristic film's set with the
ultimate tour guide, her pal Vin!
The sequel
to the 2000 sci-fi
favorite 'Pitch Black,' 'Chronicles'
catches up five years later with Vin's enigmatic anti-hero Riddick, a
man with a price on his head who's dodging mercenaries across the
galaxy. "I knew that this was a character that had such a complex and
interesting dynamic that I wanted to revisit him," Vin tells Maria.
"[When I shot 'Pitch Black'] I wanted to imagine what his universe
would look like, and that's what this is. We're not making a movie,
we're making a universe."
Captured and imprisoned on a
planet where the extreme temperatures
range from arctic nights to volcanic days, Riddick partners with a
young woman from his past (newcomer ALEXA DAVALOS) to escape, only to
find himself confronting a group of religious zealots led by the evil
Lord Marshall (COLM FEORE from "Storm of the Century"), a tyrant bent
on waging a deadly crusade across the galaxy.
"What's so
interesting about
Riddick is that he is an anti-hero that
has to struggle just to understand the purpose or relevance of
heroism," says Vin. "So he travels through the universe, aloof to his
heroic calling, and that's what this movie's about. It's about existing
your whole life without any sense of identity and not knowing where you
come from, and not knowing who you are, or why you exist. And that
feels like a very relevant issue to build a mythology around."
In the
lushly designed film,
Vin gets to sport a variety of looks and
costumes ("A lot of the day is putting on armor, taking off armor," he
says), along with cool, special contact lenses that make his eyes glow
in the dark.
"It's
enhanced night vision
and it allows Riddick to see in the dark,"
explains Vin. "[I shot 'Pitch Black' in the Outback of Australia] and
these dust particles would get under these contacts, and I don't wear
contacts. But this [time] is difficult for another reason, because it's
so action intense that you're sweating all the time, and sweat gets in
your eyes, and it doesn't make me feel too good."
Also
starring THANDIE NEWTON,
KEITH DAVID and JUDI DENCH, 'The Chronicles of Riddick' hits theaters
nationwide this June.
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