Vin Diesel is back as Richard B. Riddick in a few weeks, but that probably won't be the last time we see the character on the big screen. Although the films from THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK series have never been huge blockbusters, the movies do have a very loyal following who are quite anxious for more adventures with the titular character.
SFX spoke with Vin Diesel and director David Twohy recently, and they talked about how they had to alter their plans for Riddick and future films with the antihero. They revealed that originally THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK was suppose to be the first film in a trilogy (Diesel says, "Think of Pitch Black as The Hobbit to The Lord Of The Rings"), and that movie introduced elements that would have been used in the next installment, such as the Underverse and Riddick's homeworld Furya. That idea hasn't been scrapped, but they did have to change it since THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK didn't do as well as expected in theaters.
Here's what David Twhoy had to say:
At its core [RIDDICK] is a survival story about one man, and his only way to get off this planet is to call in the mercenaries for a ride. That said, we don’t turn our backs on the mythology that we planted in the last movie, and we are actually bringing Karl [Urban] back for a few days of filming to advance it and lay the groundwork for movie four. We’re concerned with paying off the loyal fans and think that if somebody doesn’t understand something the solution is to look at the other two movies and get up to speed. It does play in a gratifying way as a standalone movie, but there are threads that we continue to sew that we started in previous movies and will continue in future movies.
Vin Diesel goes on to talk about what we should expect to see in a fourth Riddick film:
You’ve got to go to the Underverse. t’s expected, it’s something I firmly believe. You’ll have to go through the Underverse to get to Furya. So, those are the two further stories that are mapped out. The Underverse is a much more costly venture. We went this direction, trying to do an R-rated movie, which is cool and even more interesting because it’s so unexpected. But yes, you will be at the Underverse and you will be at Furya sooner or later.
There are two things we should talk about that could impact a future film: the rating for it and if RIDDICK performs well in theaters. PITCH BLACK and RIDDICK both carry R-ratings and the budgets were low enough ($23 and $38 million) that they weren't huge risks. THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK however, was PG-13, cost between $105 and $120 million and only grossed $57 million domestically, although it did very well with DVD sales.
If Vin Diesel and David Twohy want to explore more of the science-fiction mythology from the series, it sounds like they'll need a budget closer to THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK, which probably means a PG-13 rating. But (and this is a huge but) if RIDDICK makes a ton of cash, they might be able to convince the studio to allow them to have an R-rating for the next film while also having a significantly higher budget. I'm not saying that if a future film is rated PG-13 it'll suck, but I'm pretty sure most fans don't want to see a violent character the love handcuffed by a rating.
RIDDICK opens on September 6th, 2013.