Both ShockTillYouDrop and Bloody-Disgusting got a chance to sit down with Pitch Black/Chronicles of Riddick writer, David Twohy, who gave an update on the status of the third Riddick movie. The writer/director of the upcoming A Perfect Getaway confirmed that he and star Vin Diesel are currently in the midst of discussions of how to bring the character back for a third movie, including a very welcome detail that they are aiming for an R-Rated movie again.
Twohy co-wrote and directed Pitch Black back in 2000, before going on four years later to solely write and direct its step-down sequel, The Chronicles of Riddick. Pitch Black was rated R and delivered a pretty hardcore sci-fi action/horror movie that still holds up today. Its sequel was brought down to a PG-13 rating, and even Twohy himself agrees that was a mistake for the series. Check out some of what Twohy said about what direction he and Diesel are aiming to take the franchise for the third installment:
“I’ve sketched out two ideas for the next installment… Vin [Diesel] and I have decided on one approach of those two, and there’s some interest at the studio level but it would be as a PG-13 film, and we don’t want to do that anymore. That’s one of the concessions we thought we made with ‘Riddick’ that we shouldn’t have made.”
“We also spent too much money and we were too ambitions, so yes, if we do go back to a third one, it will be focused again, hopefully again the same way that ‘Pitch Black’ was, and we’ll spend less money doing it. We’re just trying to figure out how much less we can do it for, because I don’t think Vin is going to work for scale again.”
Twohy has said that they’re specifically aiming for the third Riddick to be R-Rated, even wanting to make sure they have some control over it to make that rating possible:
“We want an R, so we are looking at the possibility of setting it up as an independent movie and selling it territory by territory and thereby keeping an ownership stake in the movie. But we’re trying to see what that would yield in this unsafe market…”
Twohy also explained that the third Riddick would be a lot more scaled down in size compared to The Chronicles of Riddick, being much more akin to Pitch Black in that sense. He says that the story will always be Riddick-centric, and gives his opinion that even if you took the creatures out of Pitch Black, you still have some very interesting character dynamics. Is that a hint that we’d see more character interaction than we would full-on creature attacks? Interesting.
On top of working hard on ideas for Riddick 3 (hey, we’re calling Batman 3 as such…), Twohy also has a supernatural thriller on his plate which he has written himself called Crying Havoc. That is set to be produced by none other than Ridley Scott. Here’s what Twohy had to say about the project:
“[My next movie] could be a supernatural thriller called CRYING HAVOC that Ridley Scott would produce and I would direct. It’s about an FBI agent who uses technology to track a spy across the world only to learn that the spy is more of a demon than a man. That chase leads our FBI agent into the lower circles of hell, at least psychologically speaking. I think it’s a very cool supernatural thriller with a lot of great visuals to it. That’s already written and that could pop next. Ridley has been shepherding that project along.”
For more on what Twohy had to say about Riddick 3 you can head over to ShockTillYouDrop and Bloody-Disgusting.
Personally, I would be extremely interested in seeing the Riddick series return to its R-Rated roots. Pitch Black is still a very effective and legitimately atmospheric sci-fi action/horror, and I was sad to see the series movie away from that to the safer action adventure style that The Chronicles of Riddick had. It really sounds like Twohy (and Diesel) are passionate about the Riddick character – the franchise is in motivated hands, at least.
Would you prefer that the Riddick series go back to being R-Rated as Pitch Black was? Any thoughts on what the premise for the third Riddick movie could be?
Although no filming or release date has been set as of yet for Riddick 3, Twohy hinted at a possible production date of early 2010.
Sources: ShockTillYouDrop and Bloody-Disgusting
