Good News and Bad News Re: Chronicles of Riddick Sequels

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, and you won’t convince me otherwise: as much as I liked how ambitious Diesel and Twohy got with “The Chronicles of Riddick”, the whole Necromonger and Underverse plot was way too unwieldy, and really bogged the movie down in unnecessary subplots and exposition. So here’s the good news and bad news: Diesel says there will be two more Riddick sequels, but both will follow the plot of “Chronicles”, i.e. more Underverse mumbo jumbo.

Diesel tells MTV (who apparently have writers who don’t do name checks, because they spelled “Riddick” director David Twohy’s last name wrong twice in the article):

“There will be long scenes and long portions, full acts of just Riddick against the beasts — or creatures — isolated, which will be very compelling,” Diesel told MTV News. “How that’s interwoven with the mythology set forth in ‘Chronicles of Riddick’ is what we’re waiting for from David [Twohy], who’s almost done with the script.

“It’s a ‘Chronicles of Riddick’ story told in the ‘Pitch Black’ fashion,” Diesel promised for the new sequel. [Twohy] scripted both previous Riddick movies, as well as the the video game “The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury,” so there should be plenty of continuity in the story’s vision.

The last part, the “Chronicles of Riddick told in a Pitch Black fashion” gives me hope. I would have just wished they had gone back to the basics, though. Intergalactic stuff is cool and all, but that’s not why Riddick is cool. He’s a killer, a loner badass, not the leader of a friggin’ army of planet destroyers. But hey, that’s just my opinion.

Here’s a video of the MTV interview: