The Pitch: Remember 2004's The Chronicles of Riddick? That's right, the $120 million Pitch Black sequel that colossally bombed at the box office? Just shy of a decade later, Vin Diesel returned in the title role in a movie with less than one-third of the budget of the previous film, and written and directed by the same guy who ran that movie into the ground. The Result: In fairness, Riddick was by no means a terrible film, but it wasn't a particularly good one either. Still, after the abomination that was Chronicles, writer-director David Twohy taking almost 10 years to prepare another attempt was likely due to having to convince Universal Pictures that he wouldn't blow it this time (and the $38 million budget was likely the deal-breaker). Vin Diesel was, surprisingly, still a household name thanks to the continuing adventures of the Fast and the Furious franchise, and so Universal figured the movie would probably make back its budget. To their credit, they were right: Riddick made $98 million, proving to be a minor financial success for the studio, even if the decade-long wait left us mostly apathetic for another go-around on a franchise that pretty much faltered before it even got started. Furthermore, given how most people only ever watched Chronicles once and quickly forgot about it, Riddick's references to the events of that film pretty much fell completely on deaf ears.
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
