
I  was first "introduced" to Vin Diesel in 2001's The Fast and The  Furious. While he isn't a bad actor, I wasn't blown away by his  performance. There was something about him though, something about that  gravelly voice and bald, round head that was familiar. It wasn't long  before I realized that this was the same actor who portrayed the  intimidating, interesting, and scene-stealing criminal Richard B.  Riddick in the science fiction horror Pitch Black only a year prior. Now  that's a character. And with Keith David in the supporting cast, Pitch  Black is almost too intense of a film.
2004 saw the release of The Chronicles of Riddick, a spinoff of Pitch  Black featuring everyone's favorite mass murderer. David Twohy, director  of Pitch Black, returned to helm this sequel. The film wasn't treated  very kindly by critics and received a 29% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It  also failed at the domestic box office, but its worldwide take came in  around $115 million, just under its budget of $120 million
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Despite not being a smash hit, plans to make a third Riddick film creep  ever closer to fruition thanks to Diesel and Twohy's love for the  character. Late last year, Diesel commented that the film was still in  development. Last week Diesel was quoted as saying that, despite having  to take a pay cut, the film might get made this summer. And now David  Twohy has released a rather general, encouraging statement that includes  rhetoric like "hurdles seem to be dropping," "final turn is being  rounded," and "we've reached a critical mass of enthusiasm and resource  needed to launch a movie."
By all means, Mr. Twohy, launch that movie.