How do you create a Science fiction/movie franchise? Ask David Twohy, the driving force behind the possibly ongoing Chronicles of Riddick saga. I say "possibly ongoing" because the future of the storyline (according to what I've heard) depended a whole lot on ticket sales from the first two opening weeks of The Chronicles of Riddick which debuted at #2 in its opening week but sunk all the way to #6 this past weekend. However, considering it has now made $42 million which is $2 million more than Pitch Black made in its entirety, we may see more of Riddick.

But wait...I'm getting way ahead of myself. There's much to be explained, isn't there? Way back in the year 2000, then barely known actor, Vin Diesel stared in the movie Pitch Black as anti-hero, Richard B. Riddick. Diesel's character is a prisoner of a mercenary simply named Johns who is presumably transporting him to get a reward when their ship crash lands on a planet where the sun hardly ever sets. Well, it sets about every twenty-three years or so, and wouldn't you know it--Riddick, Johns and a whole group of survivors are there at just the right time. Once night falls, monsters come out of the ground. Pitch Black fell squarely into the science fiction-horror genre along the lines of the Alien movies. Oh, and since as you may have guessed from the title, at one point in the movie everything goes...well...pitch black, and you might also find it interesting that among Riddick's more interesting characteristics is his surgically enabled ability to see in the dark.

Flash forward four years and Vin Diesel is a big star now commanding eight-figure salaries. Plus, that little movie Pitch Black, originally made for a measly (by Hollywood standards) $23 million has created a healthy cult following. So how do you make a sequel? With the Alien series, the first movie was good...and really, so was the second one, Aliens. But by the time you get down to the third and fourth installment (I won't include in this example this summer's Alien vs. Predator), all you really have is four rounds of Sigourney Weaver fighting an ugly monster.

Well David Twohy dreamed big, really big. If he had followed the Alien plan, he could have had Riddick back on the planet for round two with the creatures that only come out at night. However, he decided to do something on a much grander scale in this summer's Chronicles of Riddick. He not only changed genres from Sci-Fi/Horror to Sci-Fi/Adventure, but he set about to create an epic Space Opera. But this is not George Lucas fare. Riddick is no Han Solo, and he's certainly not a Luke Skywalker. This series is much darker. And if there is going to be a franchise, Twohy wanted to do everything possible bring us quickly up to speed on Riddick's backstory.

How can I explain this? You see, as of this summer, there are now four parts to the story so far. Twohy wants to do a trilogy, but from what I understand, Pitch Black is NOT part one. This summer's Chronicles of Riddick is part one. Consider Pitch Black to be a prologue where we get introduced to the Riddick character. In fact, EVERYTHING will now fall under the title Chronicles of Riddick. The newly released DVD version of the first movie has now been renamed Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black. And my guess is that if Twohy gets the go-ahead to make two more movies, this year's movie will eventually get a subtitle the way the first of Lucas' movies became Star Wars: A New Hope. My prediction (and you heard it here first) is that the current Riddick movie will eventually become known as Chronicles of Riddick: The Underverse if later movies get made.

Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick are so different that if I could make a bad Star Trek analogy, the first movie would be kind of like your run of the mill TV episode that's easily forgotten like the one where Kirk meets Abraham Lincoln. But Chronicles of Riddick would be as significant as Wrath of Khan in the ongoing history of the Riddick character. In fact, if you've never seen Pitch Black it wouldn't matter in terms of following the story in Chronicles.

So as I mentioned two paragraphs up, if Twohy is going to create a whole Riddick universe and ongoing franchise, we've got to get up to speed on the background of the Riddick character. He has done this through the release of cross-media. The Matrix series did this in 2003 with the release not only of the final two installments in the movie trilogy, but also through a straight to DVD collection of animated stories (The Animatrix), a video game (Enter the Matrix), and a collection of comic book stories. All of this was designed to give a back story to the events in the movies and give the fan details which were left out of the cinematic tellings. And of course the Star Wars and Star Trek series have done this for years by including video games, novels, and comic books that expand on the stories in the movies.

So this year to coincide with the release of Chronicles of Riddick, fans also have a video game (Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay), and a straight to DVD animated tale (Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury). The video game helps to set the stage for Pitch Black explaining how Riddick got his eyes that see in the dark. And the animated tale bridges the gap between the first and second movies.

So here's the proper chronological order if you're following this so far:

1. Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (video game)
2. Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black (first movie)
3. Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury (animated DVD)
4. Chronicles of Riddick (this summer's movie)

These stories are set in what seems to be our future. I say that it is our future (as opposed to something like the Star Wars universe which takes place "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away) because there are cultural references and slang that originated in our culture. But unless, I missed it, no one has ever said for sure.

I had not see Pitch Black when it was first at the theater. In fact, I barely remember it at all. But I was intrigued by the trailer and online buzz surrounding Chronicles of Riddick, so I rented it two days before going to see the current movie. As I've already mentioned, the first movie is very different from the second one. Everyone calls Riddick an anti-hero. In the second movie, that description applies, but it's hard to know if it's applicable in the first one. In Pitch Black, I can't decide if I even like Riddick at all. I mean anti-heroes range from the selfish Han Solo in the Star Wars stories to perhaps even (on the other extreme) Warren Beatty's portrayal of Clyde Barrow. To me an anti-hero is someone who is flawed but either does good things in the end (like Han Solo) or doesn't do good things (like Clyde Barrow), but because of the way the story is told, you are drawn to him anyway.

In Pitch Black, I don't know if I even liked Riddick. He was selfish, arrogant, mean, and there was very little if anything redeemable about him. Let me give you a comparison. In the first Star Wars movie, Han Solo is a fairly selfish guy and says he is not going to help the Rebellion fight the Death Star even though they really need him. But in the end, he changes his mind and comes through for them because his conscience makes him. Well in Pitch Black, there's one point in the movie where Riddick is going to take the only available ship and leave the planet even though he knows he is leaving the other survivors to a certain death. Had the ship's captain not caught up with him, he would have certainly gotten away with it. However, when one character makes the ultimate sacrifice for Riddick in the movie, you begin to feel for a moment that perhaps Riddick does have a heart after all because the act seems to visibly move him. That was enough to intrigue me and make me want to see more.

As I've mentioned, this summer's movie is vastly different from the 2000 installment. How do I describe it? This movie is so large. In it Riddick comes out of a self-imposed exile to stand in the way of an oppressive force known as the Necromongers--a group of bad guys that are somewhere between the Empire in Star Wars and the Borg in Star Trek. It turns out that he isn't a nobody, but a person of huge significance for the future of freedom in the universe. The movie has a very unexpected ending (which oddly reminded me of the Conan movies) and honestly, I have no idea where Twohy will go with sequels if he makes them. Chronicles of Riddick received a PG-13 rating opposed to the R rating that Pitch Black received. Both language and violence were toned WAY down. In fact, most of the fight sequences were shown through quick cut-away shots that give the viewer a sense of action but very little detail.

After seeing the first two movies, I rented the video game, Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay from Blockbuster. Most video games that are movie tie-ins, frankly stink. Escape from Butcher Bay is a rare exception. Visually, it is one of the most graphically detailed games ever created for the X-Box (it is not available for the PS2 or GameCube). Although much of it plays like a first person shooter, it is much more than that. Also involved is quite a bit of stealth, problem solving, and there's even a short run in mech assault type armor. As I've already mentioned, this game serves to explain how Riddick got his "nightvision" and how Johns (the mercenary) and Riddick came to be aboard the ship in Pitch Black. The story revolves around Riddick's attempt to escape from maximum security prison, "Butcher Bay" (also referenced in the current movie). I had the game rental for a week and played it all the way through with a day to spare. It is rated M for mature because of violent content and language. Violent content can be lessened in the optional settings. What I don't understand is why video games don't have similar features regarding language.

Tonight, I rented Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury. Chronologically it takes place immediately after the events in Pitch Black. Riddick, Imam, and Jack (Kyra)--the survivors of Pitch Black are taken captive aboard a ship of mercenaries. The story is written by David Twohy and the animation is primarily the work of Peter Chung who also was behind "Matriculated" in The Animatrix (incidentally, Chung's work is some of my least favorite in Animatrix, but that's just me). We are also introduced to the mercenary Toombs who is prominently featured in The Chronicles of Riddick. I was disappointed that after spending $4 for this rental, the story lasts only about 35 minutes. There are a handful of behind the scenes segments, but nothing really that stands out. It's too bad that they didn't have time to create a few more Riddick stories to go on this disc. Although this is supposed to bridge the five years between the first two movies, I think it would be safer to say that it bridges about a day's worth. There's certainly room to tell a whole lot more. For instance, although it is hinted at, what really caused such antagonism to develop between Kyra and Riddick by the time we get to the second movie. Yes, we are told that he left when she needed him and all that, but her feelings were really intense by the time Riddick finds her in this summer's installment. Interestingly, in Pitch Black, actress Rhiana Griffith played Jack and also provides his voice in Dark Fury. The grown up Jack-turned-Krya in Chronicles of Riddick is played by Alexa Davalos.

Throughout the storyline so far (with maybe the exception of Escape from Butcher Bay) is Riddick's own personal struggle against his own nihilistic tendencies and perhaps even faith in something beyond himself. In the first movie, Imam, the Islamic cleric (played by Keith David), tries to encourage Riddick to have faith. Imam tells Riddick that his problem is that he doesn't believe in God. Riddick counters that it's Imam who doesn't understand. Riddick explains that he was found as an infant in a dumpster with his umbilical cord around his neck and that he's spent more than half his life in prison. He says that it's not that he doesn't believe in God. On the contrary, he does believe in Him and he hates him. He is out for self. But it's the sacrifice of Fry in Pitch Black that seems to reach beyond that tough exterior and hints that perhaps there's something more than just a hardened criminal in the person of Riddick. In Dark Fury, in one particular tight spot, Riddick simply says to Imam, "Pray." And then in Chronicles of Riddick, there is a religion that the Necromongers bring to conquered worlds, but it is not a religion of freedom but of darkness and slavery. When they conquor a people, they offer the simple chance to either convert or die. Conversion leads to reorienting one's thoughts and begins a life devoted to eventually reaching the "Underverse." Riddick rejects such a distortion of faith. It will be interesting to see if Twohy continues to pursue this part of Riddick's faith journey (if there are future installments).

The only part of the Riddick push I haven't taken part in (and don't plan to) are the novelizations of the movies. Although the first was done by a writer known for writing novelizations of movies, Chronicles of Riddick is novelized by sci-fi great, Alan Dean Foster. The makers of the series are trying very hard to create a hard core sci-fi franchise. This summer's movie made Riddick's world seem immense--Frank Herbert-Dune-size immense. The question remains as to whether or not they will be successful. Right now, reviews seem to be a bit mixed. I enjoyed my time spent with Riddick, but it didn't intrigue me as much as The Matrix series did. Nor did it stir my imagination in the way that Tolkien did when I read his books as a teenager or even when I saw the original Star Wars trilogy. But who knows...maybe Riddick will grow on us.
 

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Side note: Has anyone noticed that movie rentals have gone up to $4? When did that happen?