Vin Diesel as Riddick in PITCH BLACK
© 2000 Universal

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PITCH BLACK 3, 4 being readied

Ladies and Gentlemen, this one sounds sweet.

Universal Pictures has locked David Twohy into three more sequels to the 2000 sleeper hit PITCH BLACK. Now we already knew Vin Diesel was coming back for PITCH BLACK 2, called THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK, but it now looks like both Twohy (director of the first and the coming sequel) and and Diesel will be making PITCH BLACK 3 and 4, and perhaps back-to-back.

And while talking to VARIETY about this new set-up, Twohy (who also wrote THE FUGITIVE, G.I. JANE and WATERWORLD) had some interesting ideas about how he and Diesel are thinking of the series.

"Vin has become a bigger star, and he and I became interested in multiple pictures," said Twohy, who revealed he and Diesel have mapped out the three next films. "Vin wanted a franchise and when FAST AND THE FURIOUS didn't happen for him, we pitched this to the studio and they went for the idea of not just one but up to three follow-ups. We'll give Riddick multiple adversaries on different levels. We think of PITCH BLACK like MAD MAX was to ROAD WARRIOR, or THE HOBBIT was to THE LORD OF THE RINGS. They were places to find one of your characters, enabling you to take them to different places in subsequent films."
Big words, but if they can pull it off...

This also comes with the news the drafts for RIDDICK written by David Hayter and then Akiva Goldsman have been passed on, and Universal has decided to go with the ideas cooked up by Twohy and Diesel.

The original BLACK told the story of a shipwreck on a planet with two suns where creepy monsters come out only in the dark, and only a convict (Diesel) has the skills to survive.