Vin Diesel’s ‘Riddick: Furya’ to Begin Production in August

The fourth installment in the franchise reunites Diesel with writer/director David Twohy

Riddick
Universal

The chronicles of Riddick are officially continuing.

Vin Diesel is set to begin production on the fourth film in the “Riddick” franchise, “Riddick: Furya,” this August. The film will shoot in Germany, Spain and the U.K. It will reunite Diesel with franchise stalwart David Twohy, who will once again write and direct.

The official synopsis for the new film reads: “Riddick finally returns to his homeworld, a place he barely remembers and one he fears might be left in ruins. But there he finds other Furyans fighting for their existence against a new monster. And some of these Furyans are more like Riddick than he could have ever imagined.”

Diesel first played Riddick, an escaped convict who genetically augmented his eyes to see in the dark, in 2000’s excellent “Pitch Black.” While not a huge financial success — $53 million on a $23 million budget — this was the time when DVD sales could create a potential film series. And so, in 2004, “The Chronicles of Riddick,” a much larger, much sillier movie was released. It had a budget of over $100 million and was seen as a box office disappointment.

When Diesel showed up for a split-second cameo in “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift,” part of his deal was that Universal would return the character rights to him. And in 2013, almost 10 years since his last outing as Riddick, Diesel and Twohy released “Riddick.” Now, incredibly, there will be a fourth film more than 10 years since that last Riddick entry (the franchise also boasts three video games and an animated short film, “Dark Fury”).

Diesel will star and produce under his One Race Films banner alongside sister Samantha Vincent. Thorsten Schumacher for Rocket Science and Lars Sylvest for Thank You Studios will also produce alongside Joe Neurauter.

Rocket Science represented the international sales rights and has completed worldwide cornerstone pre-sales to the U.K. (yet to be announced), France (Metropolitan), Germany (Leonine), Spain and Latin America (Sun), Benelux (The Searchers), Poland (Kinoswiat), Canada (Elevation), Scandinavia (Scanbox), Portugal (Lusomundo), Switzerland (Ascot Elite), South Africa (Empire), Greece (Femeway), Middle East (Front Row), Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Czech/Slovak, Republic Former Yugoslavia (ProRom) and Thailand (Sahamongkhol). CAA Media Finance is representing the North American rights.

A “Riddick” television series is also in development.

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