RIDDICK RETURNS

Sign me up too Sebastion!  Love Pitch Black, and really liked Chronicles for what it was.  I just want some more badass Riddick.

It's about frickin' time.  Hopefully they can land a decent enough budget for it; I'd hate to see it done on the cheap.

:)

It sounds like the perfect story in that they can probably do it for relatively cheap without sacrificing quality. I'm sure they'll get a bigger budget than PITCH BLACK had. Honestly, on paper, it sounds like the perfect Riddick movie.

This is pretty damn cool.  Not a huge fan of the franchise (I like Pitch Black well enough), but its refreshing to see a weird original sci-fi property like this get some sequel love.

Also, Twohy is great and under-appreciated and needs to be making more movies.

If the rumors of a good script are true, sign me the fuck up. When he has a good script, there's almost nothing more fun than a Twohy movie.

Supposedly early drafts of the script are really good, with the ending needing some work, which is basically true of any early draft of any screenplay ever.

This news makes me smile.

I'm happy. CHRONICLES is far from perfect, but I enjoy the hell out of it anyway - I like its ambition, its pulp feel, and it's just fun for me. I'm curious as to where the story would have gone with Riddick as the new Necromonger leader, but I think taking it back to a smaller story is better for the character.

Hope to hell they make it R rated, though. Riddick shouldn't have the rough edges sanded off.

From the sound of it, they deal with Riddick being the leader of the Necromongers. Basically he gets Game of Throned. Non lethally, of course.

LARP it up, Vin. LARP it up to your heart's desire.

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Originally Posted by Sebastian OB 

From the sound of it, they deal with Riddick being the leader of the Necromongers. Basically he gets Game of Throned. Non lethally, of course.

I remember reading that somewhere. I figure they'll do that quick enough, and get back to the adventures of a lone badass rather than an unready lone badass as galactic emperor.

The movie is supposed to be R-rated. According the info some time ago, Diesel posted on facebook about having to take a paycut in order to ensure the rating. He seemed like he didn't want to, which doesn't make a lot of sense, since he's got millions, and if he is as devoted tot he character as he claims to be, taking a paycut sounds like a no brainer.

Either way, I loved Pitch Black when i saw it in the theater, and Chronicles wasn't that good. It's just great to hear that Riddick 3 is going back to what made Pitch Black so good.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rene (Mr.Eko) 

The movie is supposed to be R-rated. According the info some time ago, Diesel posted on facebook about having to take a paycut in order to ensure the rating. He seemed like he didn't want to, which doesn't make a lot of sense, since he's got millions, and if he is as devoted tot he character as he claims to be, taking a paycut sounds like a no brainer.

 

Either way, I loved Pitch Black when i saw it in the theater, and Chronicles wasn't that good. It's just great to hear that Riddick 3 is going back to what made Pitch Black so good.

Yea, and the most hilarious part about it was Vin asking his fans on facebook, if he should take the pay cut, in order to make the film.  I wonder what they might say?

I didn't catch Chronicles in the theater, but I confess to enjoying it when I caught it on DVD, despite knowing it wasn't great by any means.  I'm not even sure why, I just enjoyed it.  I liked it's sense of pulpy, galaxy spanning adventurism.  And I thought the final fight scene was really cool, and the pay off of Vin getting the throne was satisfying. 
 

I never saw Chronicles in it's entirety until I bought that Riddick trilogy set that included the cartoon. As I said, it's not good, but I didn't hate it by any means. I mean, it had Nick Chinlund. Nick Chinlund always is a good thing.

That was pretty silly that he was asking his facebook friends. Almost as silly as it being a question that he should take a paycut. I can just imagine Diesel sitting at a beach drinking a $100 Mojito and waiting for his 4 pound lobster to show up at his table, and wondering "Well I made these millions off of Fast Five, but should I really make Riddick 3 and take much less?"

More Riddick is a good thing. Bring it, I say.

I dunno. Obviously Pitch Black is much better than Chronicles of Riddick, but CoR is far more quirky and interesting and unique. There's already a ton of ALIEN-style monsters-in-space movies, but baroque Star Wars style epics are thin on the ground. If they could do something that built on CoR but with a tighter story and less, as you say, head-up-ass-ness, I still think it could be cool.

Question for people who saw it: was the director's cut of CoR any better than the theatrical?

Boss Johns is gonna be a newbie?  I always figured him for Cole Hauser in the script.  (Though it's been well over a year since I read it, and I seem to recall Boss Johns being Johns' brother, not his father.  Memory may be off.)

The Director's Cut of Chronicles is much, much better than the theatrical.

If its a return to form ala Pitch Black sign me up. Make it strong and to the point. Chronicles was weak sauce. Drop the epic and bring something unique.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rene (Mr.Eko) 

I never saw Chronicles in it's entirety until I bought that Riddick trilogy set that included the cartoon. As I said, it's not good, but I didn't hate it by any means. I mean, it had Nick Chinlund. Nick Chinlund always is a good thing.

 

That was pretty silly that he was asking his facebook friends. Almost as silly as it being a question that he should take a paycut. I can just imagine Diesel sitting at a beach drinking a $100 Mojito and waiting for his 4 pound lobster to show up at his table, and wondering "Well I made these millions off of Fast Five, but should I really make Riddick 3 and take much less?"

Does he really make that much off those Fast movies? I mean I know they earn big and everything but I kind of thought the reason he was going back to that well was because his career had failed. 
 

It feels like I shouldn't, but I really like that lug. And I'm one of Chronicles' biggest defenders. The fact that we actually got a nerdy, weird, proper space opera overshadows any of the film's shortcomings in my mind. So yes, bring it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Waaaaaaaalt 

Does he really make that much off those Fast movies? I mean I know they earn big and everything but I kind of thought the reason he was going back to that well was because his career had failed. 
 

 

Pretty sure he does. He's a producer on the franchise, and he knows it makes the bucks, so I wouldn't put it past him to have set up a nice fat back end deal. He did go back to them because his career failed, but the suits know that he's one of, if not the main reason people see those movies. He can still command them, but thus far, that's it.

Unless he does another movie where he's a babysitter. People seem to love that shit.

Those of you slagging off on CoR: give it another go, as the film seems to improve with repeated viewings.  Also, the director's cut is a distinct improvement over the theatrical cut.

I don't hate COR, I just think it overreaches and is a bad fit for the character in the long term. I believe I have seen the director's cut, it's been a while.

I mean, it's like if Snake Plissken became the President of the United States at the end of Escape From L.A.

Hey, waitaminute....

The script for this was so much fun, I couldn't believe it. It combines Riddicks ego and fluid tone of 2 and brings in the small locations and cast of 1. There's no planet-hopping, no giant fx scenes, no fish-out-of-water setting, no etheral beings. Just plain bald Riddick doing what he does best: enjoying to fuck with/slaughter/insult pissed-off bounty hunters who are just too stupid do get anything done.

Diesel just has to work on getting something else done. He shouldn't go on with just extending the trifecta Riddick, Fast, XXX over and over again.

Diesel exists in a weird time. The McTiernans and Harlins and Walter Hill's aren't around anymore to lionize him, to make him the sexual tyrannosaur on-screen that he should be.

Most action heroes today are screwed, but I understand Diesel has a writing and directing background. Why doesn't he pursue that? I know he's got a Hannibal The Conqueror biopic stewing, but he's got to pitch something more modest first, a Nighthawks, or a good version of A Man Apart. Show you can be a badass on a smaller scale, maybe a badass indie, and people will take notice. Colin Farrell got back into the limelight, and what did it take to headline a $200 million budgeted* Total Recall? A Golden Globe, which no one takes seriously, for In Bruges, a movie that ten people saw (and eight of them post here).

DIesel's a nerd. Shane Carruth's a nerd. Why doesn't Diesel try to help bankroll and star in A Topiary?

*I HEARD this was the budget. I can't believe it either.

Count me as someone who liked Chronicles when it came out and saw the film fall off the cliff when they went to Crematoria. When I saw the Directors Cut I really disliked the Furyian stuff and the extra content.

To this day its the only Directors Cut I don't like. I think the movie really should have stayed with the Necromongers and not had the prison diversion.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johnny Daywalker 

Count me as someone who liked Chronicles when it came out and saw the film fall off the cliff when they went to Crematoria. When I saw the Directors Cut I really disliked the Furyian stuff and the extra content.

 

To this day its the only Directors Cut I don't like. I think the movie really should have stayed with the Necromongers and not had the prison diversion.

I didn't mind the Crematoria stuff (outrunning sunlight notwithstanding), but I'm with you - I prefer the theatrical cut and am not a fan of the Macbeth/Christ allusions the Furyian material brings in.

The score for CHRONICLES is aces, BTW. Especially the track "One Speed," which is when they're running on Crematoria's surface.

See, I think that the Crematoria stuff is where the film really works.  It's focused with clear objectives, decent action, and a bunch of solid moments of Vin being a badass...much like how 'Pitch Black' was.  The film quasi bores me during all of the epic Necromonger stuff.

I like about a fifth (the great, but slow, first act of Pitch Black and some of the more insanely gonzo bits of Chronicles) of the Riddick movies released thus far. I just honestly don't think Riddick is a particularly interesting protagonist and Diesel isn't a big enough presence to breath life into such a thin character.

I think the movie should have STARTED in Crematoria (with maybe a brief prologue setting up the Necromongers) and then slowly moved from an ALIEN-esque "industrial future" movie to introducing all the crazy, Star Wars-esque elements. That way it wouldn't have seemed so tonally scattershot.

And dammit, I don't care how great the new script is or that it gets Riddick back to doing the stuff he does best, I wanted to see more with Riddick as King Conan. That's a great hook for an interesting story, precisely because it does take the character out of his "badass" element.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Prankster 

And dammit, I don't care how great the new script is or that it gets Riddick back to doing the stuff he does best, I wanted to see more with Riddick as King Conan. That's a great hook for an interesting story, precisely because it does take the character out of his "badass" element.

You don't care that they've written a good script for the character, you'd rather they go back to the drawing board and try to shoehorn him into something no one is comfortable with? You want Riddick sitting there bored as he listens to Necromonger politicians squabble over a made-up universe prone to dumb names like Crematoria? Have fun with that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Myers 

Diesel just has to work on getting something else done. He shouldn't go on with just extending the trifecta Riddick, Fast, XXX over and over again.

 

 

I'll be shocked if that XXX sequel ever gets made.  Diesel rarely speaks of it and Rob Cohen keeps signing up for other projects.  As for Fast, the recent interviews with Justin Lin seem to imply that Fast Six will be the final entry in the franchise.  If Universal continues beyond Fast Six, I suspect it will be without the involvement of Diesel, Walker, and Lin.  Considering the fact that they are already seriously talking up a spin-off flick for Dwayne Johnson's character Hobbs, I would expect the franchise to continue with him in the lead.

Riddick is still being pursued as his long-term franchise.  Beyond that, he's got The Machine and an untitled action flick in the works for the near future.

Anyway, if all goes well, Riddick fans of either previous film will get what they want.  Twohy & Diesel's longterm goal is to make at least 3 (if not 4) more Riddick films.  The current plan is to make one or two lower-budgeted sequels before hopefully going high-budget again to finish the series if the new one does well.  We get some fun Pitch Black-esque films and then it's back to a modified version of the whole Necromonger/Underverse/Furia storyline......................which is why the script for the new one still leaves things open enough for them to return to that at some point.  If they can keep the budget down on Riddick and parlay his rejuvenated fame into a nice box office for it, I see no reason why this can't happen.

Basically, if David & Vin have their way, we'll be getting more "badass Riddick" AND more "King Conan Riddick" at some point in the future.

I think Sony confirmed that XXX2 is dead in the water. Nobody will touching this again. Except maybe on DTV.

I'm another one who doesn't particularly care for all the Necromonger/Furyan/Underverse bullshit. I just want to see a badass guy who can see clearly in the dark going on adventures and fucking up the bad guys.

Really guys?  Really?  Everyone just decided to throw Ice Cube and XXX: STATE OF THE UNION under the bus and pretend it doesn't exist?

Screw all y'all!

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Originally Posted by felix 

I think Sony confirmed that XXX2 is dead in the water. Nobody will touching this again. Except maybe on DTV.

Yeah forgot about that.

Neither Pitch Black nor Chronicles are without their faults, but they sure entertained me. And count me in the group that likes CoR for its sheer crazyness and tonal shifts. Way too much sci-fi these days look like generic, focusgroup-tested toy ads. CoR didn't fall into that trap.