Chronicles of Riddick Interview

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VinXperience has translated the recent issue of the french Score magazine, in which writer/director David Twohy dishes up tons of new info about this summer's Pitch Black sequel, which stars Vin Diesel...

Where do the origins of TCOR come from?

I did not like the sequel idea the studio offered to me. I said to them: "If you want to develop his story, you have to make it more ambitious." So I offered them the idea to develop a trilogy around Riddick, Vin Diesel's character, so this way TCOR would be the first part. In case of success, we will do C-2 and C-3 (the code name for the two sequels after TCOR), just like Peter Jackson did LOTR, doing the two movies during one shooting. The idea was if I spent a certain part of my life on a project, it had to be the richest and most ambitious as possible. When Universal saw the success of LOTR, they happily accepted my idea.

After the success of PITCH BLACK (40m$ income - 23m$ budget) you would think that you would have done a blockbuster but yet you chose BELOW, a small movie. Why?

After PITCH BLACK, I wanted to do a movie without monsters. I like the athmosphere the movies from the '40, like LA FELINE, and wanted to pay my hommage to that genre. I knew that the dark tone would be perfect for BELOW, that way it would give a different style to the submarine movies. Otherwise, I found it interesting to do a yet another challenging, a tough exercise. It's a genre, where you play with the tension, different characters living together and the claustrophobia. The reference in this genre is DAS BOOT, the Wolfgang Petersen movie, that had a style, almost like a documentary. So I entered BELOW with the idea to make a completely different movie from my previous movies, PITCH BLACK or THE ARRIVAL. And now I do believe, I have succeded.

Did the fame of Vin Diesel help you to choose RIDDICK?

Absolutely. Without Vin Diesel, you could not see me now. Vin really did the career choice of these days to make TCOR with the best conditions possible. If you see xXx, you will be impressed with his presence and charisma. And they are the qualities Universal accepted to make RIDDICK. In a certain way, there are two stars of this movie: the sci-fi and Vin Diesel. Sci-fi sells itself to the genre fans, while Vin brings a broader audience to the movie.

Riddick is a bad man, a murderer. How can you build a gigantic movie around such a troublemaker character?

Exactly that's what I love in this movie. Riddick is an anti-hero. He is not the glorious type who confronts the difficulties with positivity. He carries a very negative vision on the world and the people with himself. I don't want to glorify him, and exactly that's what was hard to make the studio understand. In reality, we see the other Star Wars, TCOR won't be manichean with the Good against the sBad. This movie is less schematic. The hero is a murderer, but within the negative dimension, you will realise, there's good within him. Also, this movie follows the path of Pitch Black, where all the characters had a double edge. This movie is too controversial, too cool for an expensive film.

It seems like Riddick has "primitive powers", so they say?

This movie will uncover the origins of Riddick, and the viewers will realise that he is not a normal man. You will better understand how is he changing. Riddick is much more than you can believe. You will explore the new powers and forces within him. The movie will follow him towards countless universes, battling with the enemies. But TCOR is also about spiritualism. There will many theological references, even if I am agonistic. But religion and the way they practice it, interest me a lot. Religion has a very important role in the history of the mankind, and also in the way people are built. Talking about religion, that's good way to ask question about there functions.Both in PITCH BLACK and BELOW, I was interested in people with faith. Whether it is of religion or supernatural phenomena. RIDDICK will move a step further into that direction.

When the shooting of the summer's blockbusters ends and the post-production starts, then the directors go to work and the producers count the cinema tickets in their dreams, SCORE gives you the exclusive, the precious and the rare: a report from TCOR, the latest movie from Vin Diesel and David Twohy after Pitch Black. Made from a lot of dough, this movie wants to be the sci-fi alter-ego of THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Since 2002, Diesel and Twohy have been working to construct the multiple universes you'll see in the trology built around PITCH BLACK's Richard B. Riddick. When Universal gave the money for the first part, it was guaranteed, that if the first one made money, then two other movies would follow, that will be shot straight each after like MATRIX RELOADAED and REVOLUTIONS. But till that day SCORE surrenders to this great movie. Loaded with mythology, ambitions and knowledge TCOR will be released (in France) in August. [â€¦] Its time to be in a great shape and get ready to the violence, darkness and gigantism.

For those, who have the world in their hands, the galley slaves, who have nothing but dreams, for those who dreams from women and money while walking on the streets, for the rabbles, like me, going to TCOR's shooting is a sign. It's already when you are sent to Canada on first class. Then because this shooting is the heavy, the massive, the certified. Vin Diesel for the explositions, 125 million $ for the security and David Twohy for the laser aiming. The shooting takes place in Vancouver, in a futuristic glass city in the middle of the naturally wild area, and it uses six different stages. 30 000 square meters. Its the biggest project ever Vancouver has hosted. A few kilometres away Alex Proyas shoots I, ROBOT with Will Smith. As they say ever since i came here, the best projects are in the starting blocks and they have been throwing each other evil glances. TCOR, directed by David Twohy, has a plus advantage over the opponents. The same man, who directed Pitch Black, does the sequel now. David Twohy is one of the most talented directors of his generation, one alter-ego of Spielberg; if you see Pitch Black or Below, you will have no doubts. He has a sense how to direct and lets you lose yourself in the movie. An other point is, that Twohy does not only know success as director, as he is the writer of THE FUGITIVE as well. So it's time for the mercenary's revenge.

When they took me to the RIDDICK set, it was in a climatised mini-van with leather seats, television, CD, bar. American style. At this point, the only thing I can say is that RIDDICK is the sequel to PITCH BLACK, the sci-fi movie event of the year 2000. Vin Diesel reprises his role as Richard B. Riddick, the asocial murdered who always finds himself in the position of the savior. Just like in PITCH BLACK, Riddick has the surgically altered eyes, altered for the night vision (he can see in the dark). But RIDDICK is not exactly a sequel to PITCH BLACK. Just like Vin Diesel says: "Pitch Black is a prequel to RIDDICK. Just like THE HOBBIT is a prequel to LOTR. Its not necessary to see it before going to RIDDICK, but if you have seen it, you have an advantage compared to the others around you in the cinema."

- How was the decision to shoot in Vancouver made?

- Very fast. First of all, all of the other studios worldwide were too small to embed our project. To make the decision, where to shoot, have all the set decorations, the six stages was fearful. But here its all given.But here we were given it all. When I finished the script, the question emerged immediately, where to shoot. And as the exterior scenes happen during the escape, the only way to shoot the movie was in a studio. When it comes to a movie like TCOR, its not necessary to use the real, natural sets.

- In sci-films, it's obligatory to shoot a space ship battle scene.

- So we have one. But ours is set in the sky, in the night. If you want a reference what you can see, imagine the aero battles during the war in Iraq, but in the future.

- Scorsese said that the directors of the independent movies must have a beard. What do you think?

- I think that it has passed. I have a beard and I make a 125 million dollars movie. At this level I am rather a smuggler than an independent director.

RIDDICK is a very ambitious movie, the common dream of VD and DT. Both are giants in their fields. Together, they make a nuclear explosion. DT is a very calculating director, very accurate and perfectionnist. VD is the concrete, the way and the muscle. The crime and the style. In short, the association is perfect. Today, the stage where Twohy shoots, imitates the Necromonger world. "Just like their name indicates, they are the phantoms who spread death. But for them death is a good thing, because it frees them from the sufferings. Just like in Shakespeare's HAMLET, they see death as a re;lease from suffering. Maybe death is a good thing, that's what gives us grace and happiness. What if that were true? Then we would have to reconsider all of out spiritual beliefs? Thats what DT poses as a question to one of the characters.That's the question DT poses to one of his characters." He is Colm Feore, the actor who plays the leader of the Necromongers. RIDDICK is a movie that embeds the grand mythology's, the grand legends. Its universe is huge, and full of ambitions. It's the movie of inflations, when everything is huge, unlimited and gorgeous. I will need a lot more forests and ink to tell you about the rest.