The worst mistake you made--
Empty gun rack.
There are only slight differences
between a passion project and obsession, narcissism, and ego.
In some cases, that wholehearted belief
is enough to carry a franchise by sheer willpower.
In the case of Chronicles of Riddick,
each idea led into the next until somehow
almost 25 years after its release,
the franchise is still alive.
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Released in 2000, Pitch Black was directed by David Twohy
from a script he co-wrote with brothers Ken and Jim Wheat.
While Twohy had worked steadily as a writer, his experience
as a director was fairly limited,
but that inexperience forced Twohy to create a script that
would work within the confines of a small budget
while still wringing every bit of suspense he could manage.
The plot was classic spinnerac sci-fi, a spaceship carrying
a dangerous prisoner and his captor
crashes on a mystery-riddled alien planet whose most
terrifying aspect happens to be the prisoner's greatest
strength.
Their pitted against a horde of nocturnal creatures
while our criminal has had a black market surgery that
lets him see in the dark.
You pay him 20 menthol Kools to do a surgical shine
job on your eyeballs.
So you can see who's sneaking up on you in the dark?
Exactly.
At least that's what we are told in the first movie,
but we'll get to that a little bit later.
For this movie, it's a pretty wonderful bit
of character exposition that he's augmented himself
in order to be more efficient at his chosen profession, crime.
We're not told much about our anti-hero.
It's mostly warnings on behalf of Riddick's captor
William Johns played by Cole Hauser, a mercenary posing
as an intergalactic lawman.
There is something so undeniably charming in Diesel's portrayal,
and that almost wasn't the case.
As the story was initially being developed,
Steven Segal was considered for a role with director Twohy
outright refusing to work with the notoriously
difficult actor.
He admitted that Diesel didn't give the best audition,
but he saw something there.
While mostly known for his supporting role
in Saving Private Ryan, Diesel's dedication
to the role of Riddick is infectious.
Riddick is a murderer and thief in the vein of Snake Plissken--
Call me Snake.
From Escape from New York.
In the same way Kurt Russell elevated Snake,
Diesel makes our begrudging anti-hero someone we cheer for.
Even after the movie's success of over $53 million,
more than double its initial budget,
it wasn't until the release of Fast and Furious in 2001
that Diesel became a household name.
On the back of that movie's success, Chronicles of Riddick
was greenlit.
Armed with $120 million budget, David Twohy
returned as director and maintained sole screenwriter
credit naming the movie after the breakout character
immediately established the idea that the creator's plan to give
us more of what we wanted or at least what
they thought we wanted.
Give me your soul.
While the initial script for Pitch Black
focused on an ensemble cast, Twohy and Diesel
saw Riddick as the breakout character.
There is a reverence and worship of Riddick all over Chronicles.
Instead of the tight survival horror of Pitch Black,
we now have a sort of intergalactic epic fantasy.
We're introduced to the Necromongers, a space cult who
worships death in annihilation, steadfast
on wiping out entire planets.
We're also now told that Riddick is one of the last remaining
Furians, a race of mythic warriors from the planet Furia.
Do you remember your homeworld?
Where it was?
Have you met any others?
Others like yourself?
Sister, they don't know what to do with just one of me.
It's clear from the onset here that Twohy and Diesel
have plans that were just not established in the character's
initial outing.
It seems like they intended Chronicles
to be the start of their Lord of the Rings
with Pitch Black being the Hobbit-esque introduction
to the world.
The disconnect here is that The Hobbit
was an introduction to the world of Middle Earth
whereas nothing was ever intended beyond Pitch Black.
Instead of the thoughtfulness of a planned grand story,
Twohy and Diesel used Chronicles to retcon the character
and remold him into a space Conan.
Whereas we had Riddick make the conscious decision
to have a surgery on his eyes in Pitch Black,
Chronicles tells us that this is a trait of all Furians, part
of their natural evolution as efficient warriors.
While you could make the argument Riddick
lied about the surgery to hide his Furian lineage,
it completely undercuts one of the character's core ideals,
his dedication to a life he chose.
But the lean choices of a criminal
aren't of interest to Diesel and Twohy.
In Chronicles of Riddick, the two
are bound and determined to make Riddick a savior,
not just a reluctant savior of a crashed ship's
crew but the entire universe.
Where does he come from?
Who are his people?
These are the things I need to know.
And it just wasn't what the audience wanted.
Only grossing about 110 million, it
was a financial failure panned by critics.
But with complete disregard to the movie's performance,
Diesel and Twohy were dead set on continuing the franchise.
As the Fast and Furious franchise
continued to make money hand over fist,
Diesel leveraged his role to gain the rights to Riddick
from Universal.
Agreeing to cameo in Fast and Furious--
Tokyo Drift, he waived his fee in exchange for the rights.
Diesel and Twohy would try to tap back
into what made Pitch Black work with 2013's Riddick.
Our main character has distanced himself
from the title of commander of the Necromongers
and is again hunted by both alien creatures
and mercenaries.
A lot of the movie feels overly dialed in,
a sharp course correction that is
more jarring than comforting.
Everything feels a little hollow even
if we know how much Diesel believes in the project.
When the money dried up, he put his own home on mortgage
until the bank's loans went through.
And while that's admirable, there just
isn't enough of a backbone to rest these hopes upon.
As the franchise carried on, simplicity
was shoved aside in favor of establishing a universe.
Diesel's entire career is made largely
of his own fandom from the 2015 The Last Witch Hunter based
on the actor's actual Dungeons and Dragons character
to the way he obsessively wants to build a universe around what
was his breakout role.
On one hand, it's beautiful to see someone love something
as much as Vin Diesel loves wearing tank tops and goggles.
On the other hand, it's frustrating
when we know that ideal universe in his mind
is not what we loved about the first film.
Now what are you going to do to get that cred back?
What's the big play?
Something splashy.
The closest they have come so far
is not 2013's Riddick but maybe 2004's
is Chronicles of Riddick--
Dark Fury.
Directed by the legendary creator
of Aeon Flux, Peter Chung, the 30-minute animated movie
was intended to bridge the gap between Pitch Black
and Chronicles of Riddick.
Written by television writer Brett Matthews from a story
by Twohy, Dark Fury hammers home what
we loved about Riddick, a reluctant hero working
against all odds opposed by wild villains
and over-the-top circumstances.
The pure fun B-movie schlock is in full force
without falling under the weight of its wild universe expanding
once.
Diesel has stated that there is at least one more Riddick
movie in route so far titled Riddick 4--
Furia.
Riddick is a strange outlier in Hollywood
in that it's a franchise kept alive by hubris alone.
Diesel and Twohy want this character
to be a pop culture icon in the same vein of Snake
Plissken or Evil Dead's Ash.
Groovy.
But post the original film, something
that could very easily be chalked up to the right movie
at the right time, everything has fallen flat.
Part of that may be its idea that Riddick isn't merely
a charming anti-hero but some sort
of trope-ridden chosen one, or it could just
be buying into a hype that isn't really there.
There's an idea in art that you often do one for them
and one for you.
More often the pet project is a small human piece.
In the case of Riddick, Diesel's one for them
is the moneymaking finely tuned engine of Fast and Furious
whereas the one for him is unfortunately three for him
and wrapped around his obsession with building a world nobody
but he and Twohy really want.
Whatever the general opinion on Riddick may be,
Diesel is content to build worlds and mythos
around a secondary character from a small budget B-movie
from almost a quarter century ago.
For Diesel, he's pushed a character along
through determination, bartering,
and undeniable enthusiasm, and really that's lovely.
So what do you think?
Are you excited for Furia?
Let us down in the comments below.
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