It was early last year when Vin Diesel first gave us a taste of Riddick’s concept art via his Facebook page. Things then went quiet on the Riddick front for quite a while, but they’ve lately been steadily building up, and production is set to start pretty soon.
We got some more awesome concept art back in July, and now the legend himself has again given us some more concept art to enjoy via his Facebook, and all this new talk of Riddick is making me so excited for the third film.
When Pitch Black, the first in the series, came out in 2000, it more than doubled its $23m. budget by taking more than $50m. at the box office. When the sequel, The Chronicles of Riddick, came out in 2004, however, it didn’t do quite so well, taking $115m. from a $105m. budget. When you factor in DVD (and recently Blu-Ray) sales, the profit margin will have risen significantly, but its performance at the box office was less than what the studio must have been hoping for.
As such, writer-director David Twohy has been working on the follow-up, entitled simply Riddick, for more than a few years, with a mind to do things differently with this film to The Chronicles of Riddick, and aiming to go back to basics with Pitch Black and still do an impressive amount but with a much smaller budget than the first sequel had.
Alongside the new concept art Vin Diesel’s given us, he also has this to say:
“I hear you…
While I was working on character, the Director and his team of artists have been creating the world and style of this picture. We all know how much I enjoy concept art and storyboards, haha, I am like a kid in a candy shop.
Seeing the early stage of CGI is always fascinating to me, it is a element that usually comes together long after the filming process, so you look forward to seeing it fully realized.
First stop for the Riddick production is Canada, which is where we shot a large part of Chronicles…
P.s. I am grateful to have Universal in such support of this complex character’s journey… not many studios would back an “R” rating. Very cool.”
That last post-script suggests that the film’s not going to be fully independent, with Universal backing it in some form or another, so hopefully that means that the film won’t fall into any financial problems anywhere down the line, because this is a film I cannot wait for. Vin Diesel’s a brilliant actor, and this is one of my favourite roles from him. Without further ado, here’s the new Riddick concept art. As usual, click to enlarge.
