Director Discusses Riddick Trilogy
Twohy says what his aims and ambitions are with The
Chronicles of
Riddick.
March 11, 2004 - Score, a French movie magazine, was
invited to the set
of The Chronicles of Riddick in Vancouver, Canada, and their interview
with director David Twohy appears in the latest issue. The magazine is
hard to find on this side of the Pond, but VinXperience now has a rough
translation up on their website.
Twohy, who adapted and directed Pitch Black says The
Chronicles of
Riddick is his most ambitious project to date. He turned down the
script originally offered by the studio, telling them that it had to be
a much more monumental story, and producing an idea for a trilogy of
films. Universal Pictures, keen to replicate the success of the Lord of
the Rings films, agreed to Twohy's request and approved a $125 million
budget for Riddick.
If the first one is successful, Twohy plans to film
two more sequels
back-to-back.
With The Chronicles of Riddick, Twohy is building a
film franchise that
is much darker than most sci-fi. Critical to his project is the skill
and presence of actor Vin Diesel, whose character is a departure from
the typical good-guy hero.
"That's what I love in this movie," explains Twohy.
"Riddick is an
anti-hero. He is not the glorious type who confronts the difficulties
with positivity. [sic] He carries a very negative vision on the world
and the people with himself. I don't want to glorify him, and ...
that's what was hard to make the studio understand. The hero is a
murderer, but within the negative dimension, you will realise, there's
good within him. Also, this movie follows the path of Pitch Black,
where all the characters had a double edge."
Twohy says that his film has strong spiritual
elements, even though he
himself is agnostic. He believes that religion has a profound influence
on people's beliefs and actions, and he tries to reflect that in the
Riddick universe.
In closing, Twohy also mentions one of the film's
big action sequences.
As most space operas do, The Chronicles of Riddick will feature a major
spaceship battle. This one, however, will happen in the atmosphere at
night. Sounds like fun.
The Chronicles of Riddick will be released June 11th.
-- Paul Davidson
Film
Force Article Here
Why Riddick Will Rock
David Twohy waxes lyrical
over Pitch Black
sequel
12 March 2004
There's no denying that The Chronicles of
Riddick is a
very different animal from its forbear - the understated yet brilliant
sci-fi horror, Pitch Black.
But, while the film looks a return to more traditional sci-fi plotting,
writer and director David Twohy insists that it will be no lesser
marvel than the original film.
"I did not like the [original]
sequel idea the studio offered to me," Twohy told French magazine
Score. "I said to them: 'If you want to develop his story, you have to
make it more ambitious.' I offered them the idea to develop a trilogy
around Riddick… The idea was if I spent a certain part of my life on a
project, it had to be the richest and most ambitious as possible. When
Universal saw the success of Lord of the Rings, they happily accepted
my idea."
Still, the escaped convict, murderer and generally
unsavoury character of Richard B Riddick is a far cry from the
fuzz-footed inhabitants of Hobbiton, something Twohy thinks works to
the film's advantage. "Riddick is an anti-hero. He is not the glorious
type who confronts the difficulties with positivity. He carries a very
negative vision on the world and the people with himself. I don't want
to glorify him, and exactly that's what was hard to make the studio
understand.
"Chronicles won't be manichean with the Good
against the Bad. This movie is less schematic. The hero is a murderer,
but within the negative dimension, you will realise, there's good
within him. Also, this movie follows the path of Pitch Black, where all
the characters had a double edge. This movie is too controversial, too
cool for an expensive film."
A final revelation from the
director reveals that his 'hero' - whose surgically enhanced eyes allow
him to see in the dark - will come into some rather more bizarre
powers. "This movie will uncover the origins of Riddick and the viewers
will realise that he is not a normal man. You will explore the new
powers and forces within him. The movie will follow him towards
countless universes, battling with the enemies."
Odd to be sure but certainly interesting.
Thanks to VinXperience for the translation.
Riddick's Chronicle Revealed
The Pitch Black sequel mixes space opera and the
supernatural.
Some light was shed this week on one 2004's more
interesting-looking
films, when VinXperience briefly interviewed an insider on the
Chronicles of Riddick production.
Combined with the information given at the official
site's synopsis
page, we see the story of Riddick's personal struggle – the return of a
convict to the planet where he was condemned – against the backdrop of
mankind's war against the Necromongers and their foul religion.
Five years after Pitch Black, his time spent evading
bounty-hunters,
troubling dreams prompt Richard B. Riddick to revisit his home planet,
Helion. There, he must confront the places and people he once loved,
and the scourge of undead armies attempting to control their world. The
Lord Marshall leads these armies, and is reforging the beliefs and
society of Helion as part of his conquest. Riddick becomes a rebel
leader against the Lord Marshall and finds that the faith he denied in
Pitch Black is a beacon in the darkness he faces.
Along the way, The Chronicles shows us Riddick's
earlier life in a
series of flashbacks, making it both a prequel and a sequel. We see the
tragedy that befell his family, the murderous revenge he took on his
uncle, and the blame he puts on God for getting him into that mess. But
now it seems that God is moving in mysterious ways, and Riddick needs
all the Divine help he can get.
The ultimate confrontation between Riddick and the
Lord Marshall will
have a lasting effect on Helion and all human civilization.
The Chronicles of Riddick is scheduled for a June
11th release.
-- Paul Davidson
Article
From Film Force