“Fast & Furious” is the franchise that keeps going from strength to strength, while “Riddick,” Vin Diesel‘s other long-running series, is the one that just won’t die. Diesel got his big break as the gravel-voiced, contact-lensed psychopath in David Twohy‘s “Pitch Black” in 2000, and after he became a star, Universal invested big in “The Chronicles of Riddick,” and took a financial bath on a film that proved pretty incoherent and ugly (if occasionally intriguing).
But due to decent video game sales, and the persistence of Diesel, the character’s getting a third chance to connect with audiences, with the star re-teaming with Twohy for “Riddick,” and its new full-length trailer has just debuted. This time around, the plot involves mercenaries chasing Riddick, only to be forced to team with him after coming under attack from savage alien creatures (and if you’re able to explain the difference between this logline, and the one for “Pitch Black,” please do).
Anyway, despite looking like one of those direct-to-video “Starship Troopers” sequels that even Caspar Van Dien decided was beneath him, this is actually getting a theatrical release. And what’s more, you’re going to be able to see it in IMAX, to really take advantage of the two Canadian sound-stage sets left over from a SyFy Channel series the movie appears to have been shot on. The film co-stars Katee Sackoff and Jordi Molla, and we’ll find out if Diesel’s “Fast Five” audience will follow him here when the film opens on September 6th. Because we all know how great movies released in the first week of September turn out to be.
