Vin Diesel’s Third Riddick Movie is a Go

Movies

Vin Diesel is returning to the role that put him on the map before Dominic Toretto ever revved up an engine. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Fast and Furious star will return as the title character in Riddick: Furya, the fourth film (not counting an animated short I didn’t know existed until today) in the sci-fi franchise that began with 2000’s Pitch Black. The film will feature Riddick returning to his home planet of Furya and, finding it in ruins, teams up with others of his race to fight a monster. David Twohy, who wrote and directed the other three Riddick films (Pitch Black with Ken and Jim Wheat), will return with Diesel. No other actors have been cast, and there’s no production or release time frame.

I’m not big on the Riddick series. I saw Pitch Black when it was in theaters, and I thought it was okay, but despite some neat ideas, it was nothing special and nowhere near what people were making of it. I saw about half of The Chronicles of Riddick before I turned it off, which I almost never do, because it was that bad. I skipped the third one, and I have no desire to see the fourth. But Riddick seems to endure as a popular sci-fi character, at least to a certain niche fanbase. The films have never been huge moneymakers; Pitch Black was modestly successful, but mostly because of its small budget of $23 million, on which it earned $53.2 million, which comes to $95.3 million adjusted for inflation. The Chronicles of Riddick made $115.8 million, but because of its $120 million budget, it didn’t generate a profit. Riddick, the third movie, made $98.3 million, closer to Pitch Black, but the budget was reined in to $38 million, so it was better for the studio than Chronicles, if moderately. Presumably, Riddick: Furya will have a budget similar to Pitch Black and Riddick, giving it a better opportunity to pay off for its studio. The plot sounds relatively grounded; Riddick and some other guys fight a monster. That’s probably the best formula for the character, and if they can get enough people interested in a small, atmospheric sci-fi horror/thriller, they may have a sleeper hit.