New Riddick film Diesel-powered
Star dons producer’s hat — and puts up his house — for third outing
In some ways, Vin Diesel has circled back to where he began his film journey by starring in the modest-budgeted sci-fi action flick Riddick.
Sure, he more or less introduced himself playing the doomed soldier in Steven Spielberg’s 1998 Oscarwinning war movie, Saving Private Ryan. But it was his Riddick portrayal in the surprise hit Pitch Black two years later that kicked-started his flagging career.
Now, the 46-year-old’s back playing the anti-hero convict who can see in the dark. But it’s a production with fewer frills than 2004’s overdone The Chronicles of Riddick, which flamed out at the box office.
What all three movies have in common, though, is Riddick’s ability to find himself in jeopardy. The latest adventure is no exception to the series rule.
In the David Twohy-directed film (he’s directed all three), Riddick battles to stay alive against extraterrestrial predators after they leave him for dead on an obscure planet.
“It’s very rewarding to make this movie, but playing (Riddick) is sometimes a lot more difficult than other characters because it takes so much preparation,” Diesel told reporters during a recent interview.
For the third film, Diesel made some personal sacrifices to get into Riddick’s feelings of isolation.
“I went to the woods for four months and prepared by basically being a recluse and preparing the inner core of who I was portraying.”
He’s always about extra effort. Even more motivation arrived because he also produced the film.
“It was so important to get that core (of Riddick) correct so I could easily tap into it while maintaining a kind of circumspect view of what was going on with the production as a producer,” he said.
The double duty was less about ego and more about necessity. So was the fact that the actor-producer was involved on the financial side, too, when funding wasn’t immediately available.
“Riddick was different than being the producer of Fast and Furious,” he said.
“This was being the producer of something that, if it didn’t work, I would lose my house. So everything that I had in my life was leveraged to make this movie.”
As it turned out, private funding was also necessary because Diesel and company pushed to have the movie R-rated, which is a departure from the previous films, and not as attractive to a major studio more interested in a wider box-office demographic.
More Riddick productions could be in Diesel’s future, too, depending on how fans respond to the third in the series.
“I always envisioned the Riddick franchise as a continuing mythology,” he said. “I always imagined there would be many other films that follow ... and I do feel like I answered the request from the fans to please make (a third) Riddick.”
As it is, Diesel is in the middle of filming Fast & Furious 7 with Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham and Tyrese Gibson.