CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK
1,500 employees
up to 800 extras per day
130-day shooting schedule
1.5 million board feet of lumber
4,000 gallons of paint
400 miles of electrical cable
5th largest BC Hydro customer
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- The
Chronicles of Riddick -
Vin Deisel ventures back into
the character of Riddick in whats looking to be truly epic scale
sci-fi. Chronicles are two movies being filmed simultaneously. In it we
see the life of Riddick before the movie "Pitch Black". Only a couple
of weeks into production, they've been filming the scenes that take
place in "the Slam". A futuristic prison full of the lowest lifeforms
in the galaxy. A short chat with one of the
costume designers revealed the epic nature. Apparently they've created
hundreds of "Necromage" costumes. Each is incredibly heavy and huge...
similar to the large shambling Garthim that served the Skeksis in the
Dark Crystal. They're to be used in a massive action sequence to be
filmed in the next month or two. I'll fill you in as more details
arrive.
Article
Here
Vin Diesel said the following to
Entertainment Weekly
regarding the follow-up series to 'Pitch Black', 'The Chronicles of
Riddick':
"I've got books and notes and
research that will never play in the movie, but it's just to re-enforce
the
mythology, so we can say where a character originated from or what
their
primary source of income is. I want to be able to explain the
mythological
purpose of Riddick and his origin. And Judi Dench is playing Aereon! It
doesn't
get better than that! She Gandalf-izes the movie."
He adds that he contributed parts of the story.
"There's
stuff about plane travel that I want to incorporate that
I don't think we've ever seen in movies. And when I say plane travel, I
mean
travel between dimensions, not airplanes. There's a race of creatures
called
Necomongers that originate from a demiplane of shadow, which is where
the
negative plane overlaps with the prime material plane and creates its
own
universe."
From Countingdown.com & article from
Entertainment Weekly
CHRONICLES
OF A SCI-FI DWEEB
George Zakk has known action
star Vin Diesel for more than a decade and has
been his producing partner for eight years. Zakk says he's not
surprised
Diesel is so committed to Riddick, the film he
will begin rehearsing in Vancouver at the end of the month. It's the
first in a planned
sci-fi trilogy based on the character Diesel played
in the 2000 cult film Pitch Black.
"Vin is still this big kid
who grew up playing Dungeons & Dragons. He
was this dweeb who honed his imagination by the kind of role playing
that game
demands. "What he did back then with
his Dungeons buddies he's doing with the
writer and director of The Chronicles of Riddick and he's just as
committed and
enthused as he was back then.
"Zakk says there is no rush to
get the three Chronicles out."We're not attempting to do a
Lord of the Rings thing and have one out
each year. There could be two or three years between each Chronicle."
Diesel had a major hit last
summer with XXX and is committed to at least one
sequel. "We won't start filming XXX2
until the fall of next year so we'll be
aiming it for a summer 2005 release. "The XXX franchise is meant
to function like James Bond and Mission
Impossible. You don't rush the sequels. You give the fans time to
breathe and
to really want the sequel." Zakk says the XXX film was
inspired by the Extreme Sport fad "which is
just beginning to take off. The more popular Extreme Sports become, the
more
demand there will be for Vin's XXX movies." Zakk says Diesel chose his
new movie A Man Apart "to show he could do more
dramatic roles. He wants to prove he's not just and action star. "Vin
would really like to do
a romantic comedy and even a musical, so
we're actively looking for those kind of projects instead of simply
making
sequels to his action films."
What's Riddick up
to?
What the shit's going on with RIDDICK,
the prequel to one of the cooler sci-fi flicks to come out in the past
few years, you may ask? Well, after spending months shooting the film
up in Canada, writer/director David Twohy was nice enough to drop me a
line with the lowdown on this anticipated movie. Not much is known
about the film other than the fact that it stars Vin Diesel, as well as
Colm Feore, Judie Dench and Thandie Newton. Here's what the man himself
told us that we can look forward to very soon:
This Wednesday at midnight, the old PITCH BLACK
website (www.pitchblack.com)
will be
transformed into a dimensional portal that will take you on a fly-by of
one (yes, just one, folks) of the worlds in the RIDDICK universe
On Monday/Tuesday the 15th/16th of December,
the film's first
trailer will hit Apple
Trailers, followed shortly by its addition to the RETURN OF THE
KING theatrical prints on the 17th. The trailer will provide a sneak
look at some of the other worlds and characters from the film
Sometime in the spring, the official website
will allow everyone
to join in a bounty hunt for Richard B. Riddick himself through the
site. The person who finds him first...is invited to the film's
premiere in June. Sweet.
RIDDICK is set to be released on June 11, 2004
Sounds like a plan to me. I was
a fan of the original film ,
but even more so, of Vin Diesel and his character, who I thought ruled
the f*ckin' screen. I think the idea of looking back into his past is
brilliant and with all systems go, it looks like the film is set to be
one of Universal's big summer centerpieces. Riddiiiiiiiiiiiickkkkk!!!
Article
Here
Before
you go, can you tell us the status of Riddick?
I’m
right about to go shoot The
Chronicles of
Riddick and there was a screen test yesterday. It was hours of
them
playing
with my eyeballs, testing out these new contacts. The first time I did
Pitch
Black, they got these contacts out there, in the boon docks, it’s in
the
outback. Very dusty, there’s dust in the air, and they put these
contacts in my
eyes. Now, I never wore contacts before. Next thing you know, I’m in
the
hospital and they’re trying to take these contacts out. I’m like
Agghhh. So,
yesterday was like, for three days before, I was like, “Oh, no, not the
contacts.
Is it
cool to go back to Riddick?
It’s so much fun. I’ll tell you.
It’s really cool to go back to Riddick and it’s really cool to go back
to
Riddick when the studio’s excited about doing it, making a trilogy out
of that
character. That’s a really gratifyingly cool experience.
Article
Here
David Twohy gets it.
The
director/co-writer
of the first Pitch Black film pitched a sequel almost immediately after
the
breakout success of the original, but it was rejected at the time as
being, in
Twohy's words, "too big, too rich." His vision? Think of it as Star
Wars' evil twin. In fact, Twohy has received the green light to develop
a
trilogy of films based on the character that made Pitch Black work and
started
Vin Diesel on a course that has established him as one of Hollywood's
hottest
commodities.
After
looking at
scripts from both Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind, Batman and Robin)
and David
Hayter (X-Men, Scorpion King), Universal has determined that Diesel and
the
character of Riddick are so hot that the original treatment by Twohy is
the
best approach. Reading Twohy's comments about what's planned for the
sequels,
it's stunning that they would have considered any other options.
Riddick will
inhabit a multi-verse with varied characters and dimensions, rival
schemes and
counter-balancing forces. Riddick is but one of those powers, and he'll
learn
about strengths and abilities he never knew he had as he evolves into a
more
potent and even darker entity. Twohy says the chronicles will be less
horror
and more dark action-adventure, with a unique and epic mythology that
marches
to a chaotic tune, pitting our anti-hero against ever-stronger and more
impressive Big Foes.
Starring
along with
Diesel, who will receive a $12.5 million paycheck for reprising the
role of
Riddick, is rap artist Ja Rule, who is also slated to do the
soundtrack.
Production for the film is slated to start in October of 2002 and all
indications are that Riddick will be a tent-pole release for Universal
at some
point in 2004.
Article
Here
When
Pitch Black came
out in 2002 starring an unknown Vin Diesel as escaped convict with the
ability
to see in the dark, it became a surprise hit, reaping around $40
million on a
budget of just $23 million. Still Universal execs did not regard the
film to be
a blockbuster and talk of doing sequels was shelved, even though
director David
Twohy was keen on building a franchise. However, the film's stature as
a sci-fi
favorite coupled with the rise of Vin Diesel to superstardom re-ignited
interest in doing at least one sequel, with two more in the works if
the first
one meets commercial success.
The
Chronicles of
Riddick portrays Riddick (Vin Diesel) in the 26th century as being
caught up in
a galactic war featuring Lord Marshal (Colm Feore), the leader of a
sect waging
the so-called 10th Crusade. Aiding Riddick is an Ambassador of the
"Elemental" race named Aereon (Judi Dench), who helps Riddick to
learn the secrets of his origin. Compared to Pitch Black, the sequel
focuses
much more on Riddick (Vin Diesel) and follows him through multiple
worlds as he
meets multiple adversaries in an epic mythology style of film.
According to
Twohy, "There's a lot of theology in it. Even though I'm not a
religious
guy, I am very interested in religion and why people turn to it." Also,
while many regarded Pitch Black to be a horror film, Chronicles of
Riddick will
be an action/adventure saga, although with a darker flavor than past
sagas such
as Star Wars. Riddick, portrayed as an unsavory but ultimately heroic
character
in Pitch Black, is retooled as someone audiences can root for as he
challenges
the forces of darkness. Rapper Ja Rule has a part in the film as one of
the
other convicts equipped with night vision. The change in genre and
scope
explains why the sequel is being called Chronicles of Riddick rather
than Pitch
Black 2.
Drafts
of the
screenplay for the sequel were penned by David Hayter and Akiva
Goldsman, but
Twohy substantially rewrote their material. The next two sequels,
nicknamed C-2
and C-3, were plotted as the first sequel was being pre-produced.
Assuming the
sequel becomes a hit, then Twohy will shoot the second and third films
back-to-back. The production companies include Radar Pictures (The
Texas
Chainsaw Massacre), Primal Foe Productions, and Vin Diesel's production
company, One Race Productions. In October 2002, Chronicles of Riddick
was in
pre-production, with the script completed and a production designer
working on
it. After being pushed back several times, production began on June 9,
2003 in
Vancouver and was slated to wrap in October, 2003.
Article
Here
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