Looking back at Vin Diesel and David Twohy’s 2004 sci-fi epic “The Chronicles of Riddick”, I think most people don’t realize how complex and ambitious the movie was. And maybe that was the problem. It was just so massive, and on such a huge compass, with so many things it wanted to tell, that it sort of had audiences running for the hills instead of trying to digest it all. But I loved it, even though I thought its one big failure was just that — it was just too darn complex and expansive for an average movie crowd. So what about a sequel? Well it’s been 4 years, and we haven’t gotten one yet.

But that doesn’t mean we won’t get one. The last time David Twohy talked about the Riddick franchise, he was talking about going back to a smaller movie, similar to what they did with “Pitch Black”, which introduced the Riddick character. He probably didn’t talk to Vin Diesel about it, who is hinting at direct sequels to “Chronicles of Riddick” — i.e. more big movies about the Necromongers and the Underverse.

Here’s what Diesel told MTV about his plans for the further adventures of Riddick:

“David Twowy right now is writing the scripts. The only question is whether we take a page from the ‘Lord of the Rings’ guys and try to shoot the two chapters at the same time. There are two more in mind,” he said of Riddick, the Furyan warrior first introduced in the 2000 film “Pitch Black.” “‘The Chronicles of Riddick’ was presented as a three part trilogy that would answer ‘Pitch Black’ in the same way that ‘Lord of the Rings’ answered ‘The Hobbit.’

“Everyone knows I love the Riddick character and I’m always working on it. It just takes five years to make another one because David Twohy and I are so precious about it.

“Sooner or later we all end up in the Underverse… Sooner or later.”

Unless Vin Diesel’s star rises again very soon, I don’t think any studio will give him and Twohy the money to make not one, but two mega budgeted sci-fi epics. At this rate, they should probably consider going back to the beginning, and pick up where they left off with “Pitch Black”, or maybe go the prequel route and follow Riddick’s escape from that Slam he talked about in “Pitch Black”…