Riddick: Diesel and Co. Stir Bidding War For Back-to-Basics Sequel

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Exciting news for fans of Pitch Black. It was 10 years ago today that Richard B. Riddick first graced movie screens – marooned on a distant star, fighting his way through the night in Pitch Black. And just yesterday, fans started to get a sense of how the third film in the series is about to revive the franchise.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSWXlm9I05o]

It was the Hollywood Reporter that covered the news of the project’s unveiling for the European Film Market, with Vin Diesel present to trumpet the news that Riddick will be far closer in tone to the original Pitch Black. “Though billed as a back-to-basics approach to the character popularized by Diesel, the script features the character — the most wanted man in the galaxy — left for dead on a barren alien planet, dealing with ‘trisons’ (three-legged bisons) and ‘mud demons.’ He must then contend with two squads of bounty hunters, one of which ride rockets called jetcycles.”

It’s a perfect anniversary gift for anyone who considers Pitch Black one of the great cult titles of recent movie history. And the Hollywood Reporter went on to note that the pre-sales market was exploding in Europe over the news, as a bidding war erupted over international rights. The movie’s not even made yet, but already distributors are sensing the excitement in Riddick-land. We can now all pretend like Chronicles of Riddick never happened…maybe we’ll just dub Riddick Pitch Black 2.

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