How Lord Of The Rings And The Star Wars Prequels' Success Led To The Chronicles Of Riddick
Vin Diesel's career has grown exponentially since he first played the goggle-wearing badass, Richard B. Riddick, in the 2000 sci-fi film, "Pitch Black." That movie, along with the two other "Riddick" features after it, was written and directed by David Twohy. The first film, however, was much smaller in scale than its predecessor, 2004's "The Chronicles of Riddick." "Pitch Black" had a $23 million budget and focused on a small group of survivors trying not to get eaten by dark-loving creatures inhabiting the planet they crash landed on. "Chronicles," by comparison, had a whopping $105 million budget and was an sci-fi extravaganza full of planet-wide battles, a lot of CGI, and had Diesel coming to the aid of Judi Dench and her people who are being invaded by a cult-like empire called the Necromongers. The sequel barely made more than it cost worldwide, making it a definitive failure.
The studio greenlit the epic sequel, however, because there were a couple of other genre features in the early 2000s that killed at the box office. I'm talking, of course, about those little "Lord of the Rings" movies from Peter Jackson, as well as those other small, intimate films from George Lucas — the "Star Wars" prequels.
People flocked to theaters in droves to watch both of these franchises. Studios took notice, and Twohy and Diesel were two in Hollywood who benefited from the hype.
The expanding Riddick universe
In a 2002 interview with Variety, David Twohy shared the story about how "The Chronicles of Riddick" came to be:
"I pitched an ambitious treatment for a sequel two years ago and [Universal Pictures] passed. It was only after 'Lord of the Rings' and the new 'Star Wars' that the possibilities here grabbed us. Once we started running with it, everybody fell in love with what we were doing, even the studio. Is everybody planning for three? Yes, they are."
Twohy also said during the interview that Vin Diesel was extra interested to make more Riddick films back in 2002 because he wanted a franchise and "'Fast and Furious' didn't happen for him." I have news for you from the future, Twohy, "Fast and Furious" did happen and metastasized into a bombastically absurd franchise, with the eleventh film in the universe, "Fast X," bringing us more ridiculous moments to look forward to. Everything's come up Diesel, in fact, because not only did he get the "Fast and Furious" franchise as well as two additional "Riddick" films in 2004 and 2013, but he and Twohy are also currently shopping one more Riddick feature, "Riddick: Furya." It looks like Richard B. Riddick will be back a theater near you sometime soon, whether you were looking forward to that or not.