The 2000 sci-fi movie Pitch Black alone was a solid thriller, considering it was starring a relatively unknown new action star, Vin Diesel.  A dark battle for survival with marooned space travelers on a desert planet, Diesel’s equally dry voice and cool demeanor boosted him into lead roles in The Fast and the Furious series and the XXX series.  Pitch Black featured Diesel as a silver eyed mercenary who has the rare ability in this new sci-fi world to see clearly in the dark, along with Red Widow star Radha Mitchell and They Live co-star Keith David.

Four years later Diesel brought Riddick back in an animated film, Dark Fury, and to the big screen again in The Chronicles of Riddick, an amped up and bigger budget film co-starring Judi Dench (Skyfall, As Time Goes By) and Karl Urban (Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, Judge Dredd).  Like Road Warrior took the original 1979 movie Mad Max into new territory, so went The Chronicles of Riddick, with epic Flash Gordon-inspired sets and Lord of the Rings-quality costumes.  So will the September release of Vin Diesel’s fourth film entry in the Riddick franchise be a Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome blockbuster?

Diesel released the first teaser from the new movie this week on his Facebook page.  It’s definitely a teaser–pretty brief–but you definitely get a vibe this will have a lot of action and suspense.  Check out the first preview of Riddick:

Even cooler may be the stills Diesel has previewed from the film.  This first image is inspired by the classic Conan the King image:

And here he appears to be readying to make mincemeat out of one of his co-stars:

And check out these other glimpses from the film:

Karl Urban returns as Vaako.

And the new film introduces Battlestar Galactica co-star Katee Sackhoff into the Riddick universe.

Riddick has a release date of September 9, 2013.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com