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天域戰士
The Chronicles of Riddick
2000年，《黑煞天魔》(Pitch Black)在美國掀起新一代科幻熱潮。一個由驚慄動作編導大衛杜希(David N. Twohy)創作的灼熱星際城市，為雲狄素(Vin Diesel)飾演的高危殺人逃犯厲敵 (Riddick)開闢了暴走新宇宙，也令科幻狂迷沉醉於這個全新的星空之戰。籌備4年，萬眾期待的科幻電影《天域戰士》終於在今個暑假出擊，主角厲敵繼續他的冒險旅程。此外，同系列的遊戲《The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay》及動畫VCD《The Chronicles of Riddick: Dick Fury》以及分別於6月10日及7月9 日推出。
故事大綱
《黑煞天魔》的殺人暴犯厲敵 (Riddick)（雲狄素飾）５年之後，依然被放逐在星際宇宙間，現時身處於一個先進的多文化星球「首陽星」（Helion）。可惜這裡剛遭大帥（甘姆費奧里飾）為首的死煞兵團侵略。他們以26世紀十字軍之名出師，實際是到處大開殺戒。
厲敵 (Riddick)也被收監於地下室，每日要忍受火山之熱、極地之寒。此時，他卻遇上多年前太空失事的生還少女姬拉（艾莉莎迪華露絲飾），兩人遂決定一起逃獄。豈料，他們誤闖死煞族的指揮船，被捲入一場與人與死煞兵團搏鬥的世紀戰，最後更要正面挑戰邪惡之王大帥。
製作花絮
天域宇宙 延續反英雄神話
百分百原創的《天域戰士》，由科幻片新貴導演大衛杜希編導、動作片型男雲迪素主演兼監製，是兩人繼2000年《黑煞天魔》之後的另一次合作。所謂「The Chronicles of Riddick」，就是要揭開《黑》片中狄素飾演的厲敵 (Riddick)這個角色背後的神秘身世，繼而發展出一個前所未有的驚險星際歷程。所以與其說《天域戰士》是《黑》片的續集，倒不如說它是一個由「厲敵」開拓的全新故事，一片新宇宙。正如導演杜希說：「我們不返回同一個星球，不用回同一樣的生物…我今次甚至連類型也改變了，上次是驚慄，今次是科幻動作歷險，我們要的是完全的蛻變。」
編劇出身的杜希亦很重視每個人物的層次，他指出：「角色一定要有深度，要出人意表，好像片中的『壞人』都會救贖自己。」所以天域的宇宙裡，基本上全都是「壞人」。正如厲敵這個逃犯一樣，他在故事中是一個不斷產生進化的角色──他先是一個惡名昭彰的殺人犯，但漸漸地他變成大家的希望，演化成一個反英雄（anti-hero）。最後，影片追溯出厲敵的前生秘密，發現他本來就不是宇宙中的小腳色，更不是孤軍作戰……總言之，「厲敵」一名肯定從此成為科幻世界的新英雄。
百分百創作 真景星空
影片中大致分為三個星際空間，亦是全片的主戲所在。為了追求視覺上的至高真實感，導演堅持要以原大或近乎原大的比例來搭建三個天域世界。結果，影片在加拿大用上了31萬平方呎（幾乎等於所有環球片場加起上來的面積）來建立他的３大宇宙──
結果，單是木材，就用上了150萬板英呎，破了《變種特攻２》在溫哥華用木的最高紀錄。人手方面，最後亦動用了275位木工、75位畫家和85位雕塑家才能完成所有實景建築。難怪老戲骨茱迪丹慈說：「拍007電影，我只可以迫在一個小小辦公室扮演M。今次可以在這麼偉大、震撼的場景中拍攝，真的是恩典。」而雲狄素拍攝時被塲景360度包圍，尤如置身電影中的星球上。
真人上陣 武器全新
稱得上是新一代動作片猛男，雲狄素當然盡量真人演出所有高難度動作，何況今次請來成龍的入室弟子畢特利占士亞倫(Bradley James Allan)為動作指導，他跟成龍在荷里活合作了7年，更猶如打了強心針。畢特利就大讚狄素身手好，十足運動選手一樣。而女主角艾莉莎迪華露絲亦在兩個月訓練後埋位，無論吊威也或拳腳交加，都似模似樣。
特技動作統籌Robert Brown更是不眠不休地構思本片動作塲面，甚至每晚都置有錄音機在床頭，突然有新構思產生都錄下以防忘記，一晚總有10至15次醒來把構思記下，然後拍攝動作塲面。
由於雲狄素有不少是空中做的特技動作，因此Robert聘請了Cirque de Soleil的空中飛人協助拍攝；他更請來兩位軍事顧問Ron Blecker及Matt Manner，訓練300個黑煞兵團的特約演員，包括姿勢、動作、團體排列、戰略等。
至於武器方面，道具組亦親自製作了數百件武器，其中包括厲敵的匕首珍藏、死煞兵團的重力槍、氣槍以及姬拉的長靴短刀等等。
至於服裝方面，足足用3個月時間設計，全個服裝部共有75個人，負責漂染、繪畫、縫製工作，而單單只負責黑煞兵團服裝就有20個人，另有20人作縫製工序，雖然雲狄素在片中看似只穿一套服裝，但原來已為他預備了60件T-Shirt、25對靴子以應付不同塲景拍攝及40條褲子，整齣影片造了600套服裝。另外，最令人期待的是茱迪丹慈飄逸的白色裙子，原來鑲有Swarovski水晶，再加上後期電腦特技效果而成的。
Video Game 六月面世
Vivendi Universal Games與狄素自設的Tigon Studios公司，於六月合作推出了全新遊戲《The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay》，由Xbox發售。這個根據《天域戰士》及《黑煞天魔》人物及背景而創作的遊戲，讓觀眾可以代入主人公厲敵的世界，去挑戰這原創的星際領域。遊戲內容由全新故事組成，要玩家帶領厲敵這個反英雄逃難災劫重重之地，3D畫工加革命性的game design，包保緊張刺激又鬥智。
動畫版本 直打DVD市場
同系列的動畫版《The Chronicles of Riddick: Dick Fury》則於6月15日起在美國以DVD形式發售，香港會在7月9日推出VCD，由編導大衛杜希提供故事，著名韓國動畫師Peter Chung執導，而厲敵一角當然由雲狄素親自配音。
角色及演員介紹
雲狄素 飾科幻反英雄厲敵
被譽為新一代動作片型男的雲狄素近年憑《黑煞天魔》(Pitch Black)、《3X反恐暴族》(XXX)、《火遮眼》(A Man Apart)、《狂野時速》(The Fast and the Furious)等片上位。他不但幕前魅力爆棚，更是監製人才，繼《3X反恐暴族》及《火遮眼》之後，他再為本片任監製，來年亦會監製兼主演歷險動作片《Hannibal》，同時亦會初戰喜劇，主演動作笑片《The Pacifier》。
出生於紐約的狄素，７歲起開始在舞台演出，大學畢業後嘗試劇本創作。1995年，由他自編自導自演的短片《Multi-Facial》，在康城影展曝光。這部半自傳式，講述狄素因膚色問題，因試鏡時被評為「黑不夠黑，白又不夠白」而難以進身影圈的經歷。大導史匹堡就是在看過此片後，決定找狄素來演出《雷霆救兵》。1997年，狄素完成了首部自導自演電影《Strays》，在辛丹斯影展贏得好評。自此，狄素在影圈大展拳腳，並憑《狂野時速》獲提名MTV電影獎最佳男演員，加上《黑煞天魔》、《3X反恐暴族》及《火遮眼》等片，其動作英雄形象已深入民心。
最近，狄素更乘《天域戰士》之勢成立Tigon Studios，打入電子遊戲市場，推出《天域戰士》之《Escape from the Butcher Boy》。
艾莉莎迪華露絲 飾逃獄索女姬拉
本片是艾莉莎迪華露絲(Alexa Davalos)的銀幕處女作，她飾演的姬拉，性感堅強，在上集以少女積琪（Rhiana Griffith飾）之名登場，今集５年後以全新形象，再遇厲敵。
模特兒出身的艾莉莎於法國出生，曾客串電視劇《Angel》及《Undeclared》，去年在講述墨西哥革命英雄的HBO電影《And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself》與安東尼奧班特拉斯(Antonio Banderas)合演。之前，她亦主演過一部名為《The Ghost of F. Scott Fitzgerald》的短片。
丹迪紐頓 飾韋哥女爵
主演過《職業特工隊2》、《追魂歲月》(Beloved)等多齣大片的丹迪紐頓(Thandie Newton)，今次一反溫文形象，扮演嗜血成性的野心女爵。
除本片外，紐頓今年還會在新片《Crash》中與珊迪娜布洛(Sandra Bullock)、麥迪倫(Matt Dillon)等多位巨星合作。
現年31歲的紐頓，父親是英國人，母親是贊比亞人，３歲時，由贊比亞移居英國；16歲起，在倫敦藝術教育學校主修現代舞；19歲時成功贏得主演青春愛情片《Flirting》的機會。之後，紐頓一邊在劍橋大學攻讀人類學，一邊參與電影工作，包括《吸血迷情》(Interview with the Vampire)、《不羈的巴黎》(Jefferson in Paris)等。
紐頓其他作品還有《The Truth About Charlie》、貝托魯奇的《圖城》(Besieged)等。
卡爾沃班 飾韋哥將軍
韋哥將軍對首長大帥忠心耿耿，卻受妻子韋哥女爵的野心擺佈。
演此角的卡爾沃班(Karl Urban)憑《魔戒》２、３集中演繹羅漢國勇士Eomer而竄紅全球。今夏，他亦會在暑期鉅片《叛謀追擊２：機密圈套》(The Bourne Supremacy)中與麥迪文大演對手戲。
現年32歲的卡爾出生於紐西蘭，自小在電視劇演童角，大學時代開始自導自演電影及舞台劇，至今他已演出過多齣賣座片，包括《鬼船》(Ghost Ship)等。
甘姆費奧里 飾首長大帥
片中的大奸角大帥，是死煞兵團的總師領。這個邪氣迫人的角色由《芝加哥》、《驚天核網》(The Sum of All Fears)的演技派甘姆費奧里(Colm Feore)擔綱。
連納斯盧治 飾淨化員
連納斯盧治(Linus Roache) 當年擔演《神父同志》感動全球，今次卻來個大突破，在片中演負責將人質劃分等級的權臣。
基夫大衛 飾教士伊萬
教士伊萬是上集《黑煞天魔》的角色，由黑人演員基夫大衛(Keith David)飾演，今集繼續以聖人姿態出現，助厲敵一臂之力。
茱迪丹慈 飾神秘大使氣素
由《寫我深情》(Shakespeare in Love)奧斯卡最佳女配角得主茱迪丹慈(Judi Dench)飾演的氣素，乃來自極少數崇高人種的神秘大使，她掌握了厲敵不可告人的前生秘密。
導演介紹
大衛杜希 科幻導演新星
憑《天襲》(The Arrival)贏得多項科幻片獎項的導演大衛杜希(David N. Twohy)，近年以《黑煞天魔》及《鬼潛艇》(Below)成為荷里活最有前途的科幻、驚慄、動作片創作人之一，更被暢銷雜誌<娛樂一周>(Entertainment Weekly)選為「荷里活最具創意電影人」之一。
編劇出身的杜希，曾編寫過多部賣座鉅片的劇本，包括合編了夏里遜福主演的《亡命天涯》(The Fugitive)、奇雲高士拿的《未來水世界》(Waterworld)、狄美摩亞的《伴我雄心》(G.I. Jane)、兼任監製的《終極速度》(Terminal Velocity)以及被譽為Cult片的《撒旦回歸》(Warlock)等。
1996年，杜希導演了首齣電影《天襲》，得到美國科幻驚慄學院大力推介；2000年，他第二部編導作品《黑煞天魔》更以低成本黑馬跑出，除大受科幻狂迷歡迎，還奠定了男主角雲狄素的科幻英雄形象；之後執導了關於二戰潛艇恐怖歷程的《鬼潛艇》；2004年，終於完成了萬眾期待的《天域戰士》。
| 主演﹕ | 雲狄素 (Vin Diesel) |
《黑煞天魔》(Pitch Black) 《火遮眼》(A Man Apart) 《3X反恐暴族》(XXX) 《狂野時速》(The Fast and the Furious) |
||
| 艾莉莎迪華露絲 (Alexa Davalos) |
||||
| 丹迪紐頓 (Thandie Newton) |
《職業特工隊2》( Mission: Impossible II) 《追魂歲月》(Beloved) 《不羈的巴黎》(Jefferson in Paris) |
|||
| 卡爾沃班 (Karl Urban) |
《叛謀追擊２：機密圈套》(The Bourne Supremacy) 《魔戒三部曲：王者再臨》 《魔戒二部曲：雙城奇謀》 |
|||
| 茱迪丹慈 (Judi Dench) |
《不日殺機》(Die Another Day) 《愛莉思的情書》(Iris) 《寫我深情》(Shakespeare in Love) |
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| 導演/編劇﹕ | 大衛杜希 (David N. Twohy) |
《黑煞天魔》(Pitch Black)導、編 《鬼潛艇》(Below)導、編 《亡命天涯》(The Fugitive) 編 《未來水世界》(Waterworld) 編 《伴我雄心》(G.I. Jane) 編 |
||
| 監製： | 雲狄素 (Vin Diesel) |
《火遮眼》(A Man Apart) 《3X反恐暴族》(XXX) |
| 上映日期： | 7月22日 | |
| 發行﹕ | 泛亞影業有限公司 聯合國際影片公司 |
|
| 級別： | IIA | |
| 片長： | 120分鐘 | |
| 院線： |
嘉禾港威、嘉禾旺角、嘉禾荷里活、嘉禾青衣、UA沙田、UA德福、（暫定） UA黃埔、UA太古城、UA東薈城、荃灣百老匯、葵芳百老匯、元朗百老匯、嘉湖銀座百老匯、AMC、JP銅鑼灣、康怡、將軍澳、巴黎倫敦紐約、華懋、馬鞍山 |
The Chronicles Of Riddick
《天域戰士》
Directed by
David N. Twohy
Cast
Vin Diesel
Alexa Davalos
Thandie Newton
Producer
Vin Diesel
| Release Date : | July 22 2004 | |
| Category : | IIA | |
| Duration : | 120 minutes | |
| mCinema line-up: | Golden Gateway, GH Mongkok, GH Hollywood, (tentative) GH Tsing Yi, UA Shatin, UA Telford, UA Whampoa, UA Cityplaza, UA Citygate, Tsuen Wan Broadway, Kwai Fong Broadway, Yuen Long Broadway, Kingswood Ginza Broadway, AMC, MCL JP, MCL Cinema Metro, MCL Kornhill, Chinachem, Paris London New York and Ma On Shan |
Production Information
It is a dark time in the universe.
Planet after planet is falling to an unholy army of Necromongers-conquering warriors who offer ravaged worlds a simple choice-convert or die. Those who refuse their rule hope in vain for someone or something that will slow the spread of Necromongers. But rebels are short-lived and saviors, its seems, are in short supply.
When things get bad, weary survivors turn to myths for comfort-murmured prophecies, vain hopes, legends of good vanquishing evil. But good isn't always the antidote to evil and legends can be wrong. Sometimes the only way to stop evil is not with good- but with another kind of evil.
So an unlikely figure is summoned from exile and asked to join the fight: Riddick (VIN DIESEL), who couldn't care less who's in charge of the universe, just as long as he's left alone. Since leaving a god-forgotten (and creature-ridden) planet in the Taurus system five years ago, the wanted fugitive hasn't looked back. Most of his time has been spent evading capture and ghosting whatever mercenaries are on his tail. To him, it's all the same, apocalypse or no-this one-man army is interested only in saving his own life. Get in his way and he'll gladly take yours.
But something has been set in motion, and the coming confrontation propels Riddick into a series of epic, winner-take-all battles: from an idyllic, multi-cultural civilization under siege; to a subterranean prison carved out beneath the surface of a hellish, volcanic planet; and finally, aboard the massive, baroque Necro mothership and the seat of power in their black empire-the Basilica.
In the final battle, it is foretold that the fate of all may depend upon the destiny of one Furyan.
And all the power in the universe cannot stop destiny.
Featuring a remarkable ensemble cast under writer/director DAVID TWOHY, the science fiction action-adventure epic The Chronicles of Riddick continues and expands the story of cult anti-hero Riddick, with Vin Diesel reprising his star-making role from Twohy's cult hit Pitch Black. Joining Diesel is a multifaceted cast portraying a myriad of characters within Riddick's universe, including one returning character (and another one much changed) from Pitch Black:
ALEXA DAVALOS (HBO's And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself) as Kyra, a young woman whose toughness-and deadliness-almost matches Riddick's. The fugitive had rescued her (when she was a young girl called "Jack") from the Taurus system planet and re-meets his embittered, abandoned charge now, five years later.
THANDIE NEWTON (Mission: Impossible II, Beloved) as Dame Vaako, the carnal, stunning and ambitious partner of a Necromonger commander, Vaako.
KARL URBAN (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Return of the King) as Vaako, the young Necro commander whose loyalty to his leader, Lord Marshal, is sorely tested by his fiercely ambitious wife.
COLM FEORE (Chicago, The Sum of All Fears) as the sixth Lord Marshal, the Necro supreme leader, the highest, holiest and deadliest of all known Necromongers.
LINUS ROACHE (Priest, the title role in television's RFK) as The Purifier, a high-ranking figure among the Necros in charge of converting the ranks of the newly-captured.
KEITH DAVID (reprising his role from Pitch Black) as Imam, a cleric familiar with Riddick from their previous experiences in the Taurus system. The holy man's goodness and compassion are rare commodities in Riddick's universe.
YORICK van WAGENINGEN (Beyond Borders) as The Guv, the informal leader of the inmates housed in one of the universe's worst prisons-the Slam on the planet Crematoria.
NICK CHINLUND (Below,Training Day) as Toombs, a veteran and formidable mercenary intent on capturing Riddick.
And one of the world's most distinguished performers, Academy AwardR winner JUDI DENCH (Shakespeare in Love, Mrs. Brown, Chocolat) as Aereon, a mysterious ambassador from a rarefied race whose role in the proceedings remains as elusive as her amorphous shape.
Giving full reign to their imaginations, Twohy and his accomplished team of creative and technical artists have fashioned an astonishing backdrop on which the explosive story plays out amidst an array of civilizations, including the light-infused Helion Prime, the scorching Crematoria, the icy wilderness of Planet U.V. 6. With specially designed space vehicles, weaponry, technology and gadgetry, The Chronicles of Riddick fills the screen with a newly discovered universe.
Written and directed by David Twohy, The Chronicles of Riddick is produced by SCOTT KROOPF and Vin Diesel, with TED FIELD, GEORGE ZAKK and DAVID WOMARK serving as executive producers.
For The Chronicles of Riddick, which greatly expands upon the scope and vision of Pitch Black, Twohy has created an all-encompassing, mythological universe. Assisting the filmmaker in bringing these new worlds to life and filling them with action on a grand scale is a first-rate production team that includes director of photography HUGH JOHNSON (G.I. Jane, White Squall), production designer HOLGER GROSS (Stargate, Deep Rising), film editors MARTIN HUNTER (Underworld, Full Metal Jacket) and DENNIS VIRKLER (OscarR nominee for The Hunt for Red October and The Fugitive), costume designers ELLEN MIROJNICK (Twister, Starship Troopers) and MICHAEL DENNISON (Mona Lisa Smile) and visual effects supervisor PETER CHIANG and composer GRAEME REVELL, both of whom previously worked with Twohy on Pitch Black and Below.
About the Production
In 2000, David Twohy's Pitch Black had audiences and critics alike doing double-takes with a "where-did-that-come-from?" buzz. The modestly budgeted science fiction thriller was a compelling reminder that genre films could have brains to match the brawn…in this specific case, the brawn of Riddick, the film's fascinating anti-hero, portrayed by Vin Diesel, at that time a new discovery.
"Pitch Black was meant to be a commercial film not unfamiliar in its setting or context," notes Twohy, "but unexpected in its depth of character. I wanted to play with reversal of expectation, so that the 'bad guy' redeems himself. I wanted to play out a good morality play at the heart of a commercial science fiction horror film."
With Pitch Black, Twohy and Diesel created an anti-hero for our time in Riddick, whom the actor calls "a seemingly nefarious character who ends up being your only hope. Riddick lives within the realm of neutrality. These least likely of heroes sometimes take on a cult status in the science fiction community."
Riddick is the antithesis of the staunchly upright movie hero. According to Diesel, "Riddick, who has been counted out, given up on, overlooked and misrepresented, winds up being the one you are praying succeeds in saving you and everyone else in the universe."
Executive producer George Zakk, Vin Diesel's associate in their company, One Race Films, recalls the groundswell of grass roots approval that developed for the character of Riddick in the wake of the release of Pitch Black. "When we hit the road promoting the film, there were always huge crowds waiting. Riddick was an anti-hero that people just related to. They would say, 'This guy's cool. He doesn't play by the rules. He doesn't give a damn about anybody or anything.' But by the end of the film, he's no longer a 'bad guy.' There's an ambiguity to Riddick that audiences respond to and find intriguing. Riddick is the most unlikely of heroes. He's an interesting character, because he knows that there's something special about himself, but he's reticent to accept the responsibility that may come with that."
How do you make an anti-hero? "You let him evolve into it," responds Twohy. "It didn't hurt that for the first half-hour of Pitch Black, Riddick doesn't speak, which only heightened his charisma. And when he does speak, he is selective with his words. In Pitch Black, Riddick evolved from a killer to an anti-hero, and he retains that anti-hero status at the beginning of the new movie. The Chronicles of Riddick is more about understanding who he really is, and that he is no small player in the universe. His loner status is over."
Diesel was also excited to explore previously unexplored aspects of the character. "In Chronicles, you can invest in Riddick's development, become a part of that. The film takes you, step-by-step, through the process of watching him understand the significance and value of his life. It's really his evolution, watching an anti-hero re-join the human race."
"We actually started to think about a second Riddick movie when we were in post-production on Pitch Black," Twohy recalls, "and I knew the trap that other sequels had fallen into, replaying the same thing over and over again. I said that the key to a sequel is not to do the expected. Don't go back to the same planet, don't meet the same creatures and don't even let it be a creature movie. We actually changed genres from horror to science fiction action-adventure. We wanted a metamorphosis rather than a re-run."
Pitch Black's reception and success as a home-video title infused both its creator and star with the hope that they could return to the world of Riddick…but this time, on a larger scale, building a new, mythological, action-adventure world around him, populated by equally fascinating characters. The Chronicles of Riddick would be a story rich in complex characters set in a compelling and seductive, imaginary world, peopled with a planetary array of warring races and competing agendas. Twohy and Diesel's mandate was to endow Riddick with new challenges, an ensemble setting, huge action set pieces and greater adventures.
From their experiences working together on Pitch Black, Diesel and Twohy knew that together, they created a winning combination of action, fantasy know-how and science fiction smarts. Luckily, Twohy had just finished directing and writing the supernatural thriller Below, and was available to return to the Riddick playing board. And like Diesel, he was also looking "to paint on a bigger canvas" with his screenplay for the continuation of Riddick's adventures, The Chronicles of Riddick.
"David's script totally blew everyone away," recalls producer Scott Kroopf. "We all knew we had something pretty special. I think people were kind of expecting him to do just a bigger version of Pitch Black, but were excited that David went so far beyond that, dreaming up worlds and universes. The Chronicles of Riddick does relate the further adventures of Riddick, but it's also an exploration of a whole world with extraordinary elements and a stand-alone story.
"Pitch Black fans will certainly see things paid off in the new movie," continues Kroopf, "but it's not required that you've seen the first film, because the characters have their own introductions."
Teamwork: Casting the Ensemble
Just as Pitch Black was an ensemble piece in which the character of Riddick functioned as the pivot, Twohy and Diesel sought to continue this tradition by recruiting an international cast of true renown, many of them veterans of classical theatre…and one, an authentic treasure of every medium, delighting herself with an immersion into a zone previously unexplored in her amazing career.
Most importantly for Diesel was to convince Dame Judi Dench to play Aereon. "I've wanted to work with Judi Dench forever," he admits. "She's always been the immediate response to the question of who's my favorite actor. It was very important for me to enroll her in this. She added credibility and set the stage to attract other fine actors to the film."
Twohy comments, "The character of Aereon is mischievous, and we needed somebody to come to it and imbue her with a certain gravitas. The casting of Judi Dench helped to keep a very light-footed character very grounded."
To attract Dench to the role, Diesel flew to London to watch her perform onstage, and filled her dressing room with flowers. She agreed to read the The Chronicles of Riddick script and was "terribly flattered that somebody of Vin's age wanted me to be in his picture." She had, of course, already scored some 'street credibility' as James Bond's boss, M, in the most recent incarnations of that venerable series, but Dench freely admits, "I've never done a film like this and never one of this magnificent scale."
Dame Judi proved, as expected, the lure to catch other big fish. Colm Feore, himself no stranger to classical roles, calls her "a woman who can speak volumes with the merest whisper, an actor of great experience and intelligence, of great talent and instinct. She classes the whole project up quite considerably, so I figured that if she said yes, there must be something to this."
David Twohy describes Colm Feore as "a truly talented and gifted man, a throwback to stage actors of old whose goal was to service the text rather than aggrandize their career. Colm wants to help you tell your story as best he can. Rather than venture down a lot of side streets that really don't move things forward, Colm sees the goal and wants to help you get there."
Feore himself saw the possibilities in Chronicles as soon as it came his way. "I didn't see it as just a popcorn movie," he says. "One of the things I admired about David's script was that he was brave enough to layer in things on the page which seemed quite difficult. There are parallels between the worlds depicted in the film and our own history. Lord Marshal thinks he's bringing civilization to the vast darkness, with the attitude of 'if you don't join us, we will utterly destroy you.' And in conquering these worlds after our fashion, we have to be able to residually impose upon them the order and infrastructure that will keep it going…while being able to squash rebellion when it arises."
Like most actors who play villains, Feore had to find a point of empathy with Lord Marshal, leader of the race whose overriding goal is to cleanse the universe of all human life. "I don't see him as an evil man," he says matter-of-factly. "He's a warrior priest. He's called 'Lord Marshal,' but I see him very much like Julius Caesar-a Roman emperor, conquering barbarian lands and bringing under his empire whatever new worlds they come into contact with. In that vein, he looks at Riddick as a man with enormous potential."
Thandie Newton was cast as the purely evil Dame Vaako. The actress, who tends to play "characters you sympathize with," loved Dame Vaako's "unashamed lust for power. It was very different from anything I've ever played before, and I really had to fill a regal pair of shoes. It's not something that comes naturally to me, to have that kind of poise, stature and authority."
Karl Urban, who portrayed Rohan warrior Eomer in the second and third entries of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, campaigned to convince David Twohy he need not look elsewhere for his Vaako. "I was a fan of Pitch Black," says Urban, "and when I heard that David Twohy was preparing The Chronicles of Riddick I knew I wanted to be in that film." Urban confesses that he "begged, borrowed and stole" to get his hands on the guarded Riddick script, and then finagled an audition with Twohy, who was swayed by Urban's zealous pursuit of the role.
Urban found an unusual and unexpectedly compelling side to Twohy's script and offers, "One of the things that appealed to me most about Chronicles is that there are no good guys-it's just different shades of bad. But even the bad guys, you're going to like."
Another performer in whom Twohy saw great potential was 21-year-old Alexa Davalos, who makes her feature film debut in The Chronicles of Riddick as Kyra. "The character as written was very tough," says the director, "and there was concern that she would be completely unsympathetic. Yet, Alexa has such a natural sympathy that she started to lean almost against type. She would give a real heart to the role. A lot of the other actresses I read had plenty of toughness to them, but didn't show enough of the other side."
"Alexa came in and read," says Vin Diesel, "and she was so good. The second I met with her there was no doubt in my mind that she would be someone who could embrace the strength of Kyra, who's a fighting machine and almost as deadly as Riddick. At the same time, Alexa would remind us of Kyra's innocence, and I knew she would knock that out of the park as well."
"She's a wounded animal," says Davalos of her on-screen character. "Kyra is strong, she's a child, she's a woman, and to be able to play all those aspects is really a gift for an actor."
Davalos admits that she "always had a secret burning desire to act," having watched her mother and grandfather onstage and felt "really blessed" when she was cast in the part. She credited Vin Diesel with helping her prepare for Kyra-which is an extension of the role of Jack from Pitch Black-by relating the experiences that Riddick and Jack shared in the earlier film. "Vin's been wonderful in creating that transition between Jack and Kyra, and helping me not only with the character, but with the physicality as well," says Davalos.
Also helping to create another bridge between Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick is Keith David, who reprises his role as Imam. David feels very at home in the character, because "here is a man who doesn't preach doctrine-he lives it-which is, I think, the best way to breathe your religion, whatever it may be.
"Vin Diesel is a man of his word," also adds David. "He said we were going to do a sequel to Pitch Black and he really wanted me to be in it. Now, if I had a nickel for every time somebody said that to me, I'd be Howard Hughes. But Vin kept his word."
Another actor from the filmmakers' pasts was Nick Chinlund, fresh off filming Below with Twohy and now cast as Toombs, the "merc" (mercenary) hot in pursuit of Riddick. In Chinlund's opinion, Toombs "gets all the best lines. David wrote all of these wonderful, hilarious one-liners for me. It would be a challenge not to let my character get too big and too crazy, because Toombs is already larger than life."
Diesel sums up by saying, "One of the most rewarding aspects of this film has been to work with such a amazing ensemble cast."
Inventing Universes: Visualizing The Chronicles of Riddick
With a significantly larger budget to work with-and a huge canvas in which to free the imaginations of all involved-Twohy began to put together a dream team of conceptual designers such as Matt Codd, Daren Dochterman, James Oxford and Brian Murray to begin sketching the world of The Chronicles of Riddick. Soon thereafter, Twohy secured the considerable talents of production designer Holger Gross, whose previous foray into the world of motion picture science fiction was Roland Emmerich's well-regarded Stargate. Gross, supervising art director Kevin Ishioka and their huge team had one mandate from Twohy: "If we've seen it before, throw it away."
The artists focused their efforts on defining three key looks for the film: the environments of the Necromongers, which primarily included their command mothership, the Basilica, and the worlds vanquished by their campaign; the planet Crematoria-hellish in its temperature extremes of 700° by day and -300° at night-and its subterranean prison, the Slam; and Planet Helion, home to an advanced, halcyon society that prospers by capturing, storing, trading and distributing light to far-flung worlds. Gross was determined to create physical elements for the film that were not specifically wedded to the future, but could also invoke the past.
Awash in warm tones, the cities of Helion vary in their architectural style to reflect the planet's multicultural face, and mix historical and modern elements to allude to the planet's immigrant quality and progressive outlook. The inhabitants of Helion vary in their looks and garments, but all within a palette of earthy spice colors accented with turquoises and azure blues. And, as a reflection of Helion's main export and the wealth it brings, makeup artist Victoria Down "warmed everyone up, gave them a glow. These are peaceful, happy, wealthy people."
If Helion is heaven, then the Slam is pure hell. As this is a for-profit prison, situated beneath the surface of an inhospitable planet and run by mobsters, the design team quickly realized that the key to creating the Slam lay in recognizing the prison not as a building imposed upon the landscape, but as a natural space that had been modified-as cheaply as possible-for use as a prison. The result is a 200 foot lava tube crudely partitioned into cells, here and there destroyed by continuous volcanic activity, filled with exposed wiring and massive air vents, covered with a film of volcanic dust and clearly lacking creature comforts, including adequate plumbing.
In stark contrast both to the cheerful world of Helion and the primitiveness of the Slam, the Necromongers are the epitome of evil sophistication…and also the toughest challenge for Holger Gross and his conceptual artists. Deciding upon a look for the Necros-that integrated elements of their military prowess, ideology and lifestyle into a scheme that was visually exciting without succumbing to stereotypes-was not an easy task. After much brainstorming amongst the group, Gross found his answer in the early Baroque architecture of 17th century Central Europe.
Huge, detailed, elegant yet heavy, punctuated with dark metal finishes, Gross calls the Necro world "twisted Baroque, if you will…a cross between fascism and theocracy, very religious and aesthetic in terms of architectural detail, yet at the same time cold and evil, but very powerful. Finally, we developed a style we called 'Necro-Baroque.'"
Based on elliptic shapes, the adaptation of the Baroque style employed by Gross also created the illusion of constant movement. Everything is curved and non-directional, so that buildings appear to alter as the camera moves. This, of course, created serious construction challenges. "It would not be easy to build," admits Gross. "There would be many struggles finding the shape, especially for technical pieces like the spacecraft and weaponry. The Necros are living in spaceships, they're very technologically advanced, so one has to tweak and shift without losing the Necro-Baroque feeling."
The art department under Gross and Ishioka consisted of seven illustrators, 10 set designers, two art directors and, for the prop department, two more conceptual artists. Models were made of all of the sets, as well as the crafts. "David Twohy was involved with every aspect of design," relates Ishioka. "He approved everything, and that ensured an overriding, homogenous vision."
Then, how to move from theoretical to actual…there was the matter of actually building those sets, which all agreed were jaw-dropping in their size and scope. At over 310,000 square feet in total, six Vancouver soundstages at the appropriately named Mammoth Studios (which used to be a Sears warehouse) housed The Chronicles of Riddick sets, just slightly less than the total square footage of all of Universal Studios' stages combined. A decision was made early on by Twohy to build the sets to full scale (or very close), to create a complete environment in which the actors could play out the action and the drama of the film. "The problem is," explains Twohy, "if you give an actor only a chair and a table and surround him with green screen, then he wants to stick close to the table and chair. If your actors can see things, touch them, smell them, it changes their performance. In this rich environment, they come up with great, inventive stuff.
"And my camera is more fluid as well," continues Twohy. "If everything around the actors is visual effects, those visual effects have been locked off for months. Suddenly I have constraints on my shooting style. If the sets are real, then I can always be more improvisational, more dynamic with the camera. We're kidding ourselves to think that the future of filmmaking is just actors against a green screen."
"If, in your 360 degree view, is nothing but Chronicles reality," confirms Vin Diesel, "it makes it so easy to get into character. It's not like you're seeing a parking lot or fast food restaurant behind you in a scene when you're trying to imagine that you're on some distant planet. Creating a world of this magnitude is extremely exciting.
"It also gives David the luxury of shooting from any angle," continues Diesel, "and that's the kind of freedom you need on a film like this. Just coming onto sets like these, you don't have to second guess where you are. And the sets these guys created are just unbelievable."
The entire cast shared Diesel's enthusiasm for the gigantic sets created for them. Says Thandie Newton, "For an actor, it's fantastic because you're literally submerged in a fully realized world."
"It's very easy," agrees Colm Feore, "because you could tangibly touch, sit on, feel and smell the world that was invented for the film. No need to pretend. You walk in and you're forced to inhabit the space. The depth and detail of it all is enormously enriching. My imaginative work began the moment I stepped onto the set."
"It just took my breath away," says Dame Judi Dench of the first time she walked onto the Chronicles sets. "On the Bond films, I'm sequestered in a small office set when I play M, and I primarily do all of my work on those small sets. To get to work within such an enormous, stunning world is a gift."
The interior of the Basilica spacecraft alone, where much of the film takes place, was a phenomenal 240 feet long by 100 feet wide by 40 feet tall (and extended further with the magic of CGI). Cast members were known to get lost after wandering off for a look at the sets, while some crew members took to wearing pedometers to measure how much they walked (with some clocking an average of 10 miles per day). Holger Gross took the easier way around, touring on a bicycle. "You basically get a free workout every day, which is wonderful," he jokes.
Construction began in January 2003, and continued even after the company began principal photography in early June. By March of that year, according to construction coordinator Jan Kobylka, the film had broken the record-previously held by X-Men 2-of the largest purchase of lumber ever in Vancouver for a film, and would go on to break all other production records in the city.
Executive producer David Womark, who had worked on other huge Universal films such as Jurassic Park III and Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, notes that the work on Chronicles was "three times the size just in terms of construction." Womark also notes that for the film, not only all of the sets, but also the props, weaponry and costumes had to be manufactured from ground up. "You can't just go to K-Mart or Home Depot and say 'Okay, get me a Riddick knife.'" Such were the logistics of shooting that while some sets were being utilized either by the main unit or the huge second unit under director E.J. Foerster, others were going up on adjacent soundstages as Riddick's world continued to expand.
Executive producer Ted Field, whose diverse experience within the entertainment industry has accustomed the filmmaker to the expansive nature of the business, was duly impressed by the worlds visited by Riddick. "Whenever big films are made, there is usually someone commenting on the scale and the scope of the project…and I've been on some big films. But I do have to say, these places, these structures, their rich detail, the reality they create in this film-they're simply amazing."
The statistics surrounding the creation of the worlds of Chronicles were nothing short of awesome. Construction utilized 1.5 million board feet of lumber; 4,000 gallons of paint; 275 carpenters; 75 painters; and 85 sculptors and mold makers. The film would use the equivalent of 110 generators to power the lighting, and utilized 400 miles of electrical cable. On its largest day, the production would use 42 lamp operators (standard production utilize around 10), not to mention 2,500 light sockets (in the Basilica set alone), 1,000 rolls of colored cloth tape and 30,000 feet of rope.
Holger Gross wasn't only concerned with the design of the film's massive sets, but also with the physical objects contained within them, such as the weaponry, technology and gear, including: the array of blades in Riddick's collection; Necro gravity guns, pickaxes and different blades; the maulsticks used by the guards in Slam; Necro helmets; Merc guns; Helion gas guns; Kyra's boot blades. Every element was designed by the art department and then converted into three-dimensional reality by property master Tom Tomlinson and his crew.
The sheer amount of action in which their creations were involved took its toll on the props. "We've gone through a lot of glue," laughs Tomlinson. "Because of all of the stunts on both main and second units, things got beaten up pretty badly. We had to keep making more and more and more. It seems as if it's never enough…but a little bit of glue helped put them back together again."
Hundreds of pieces of weaponry, many of them intricately carved to fit the sophisticated aesthetic of the Necromongers, were designed and manufactured. And in addition to the sheer volume of weapons, everything had to be coordinated with visual effects and the stunt department to make certain that the elements of function and design were in cross-departmental harmony.
Although many of the sets were built (as much as possible) to full scale, much of the movie still needed to be enlarged or enhanced even further, a combination producer Scott Kroopf refers to as "the best of both worlds, a mix of old style moviemaking-like Ben-Hur or Cleopatra, where they used to build really huge sets-and computer-generated extensions. This way you have the thrill of shooting on a real set, and then the enormous scope of what contemporary visual effects have to offer. To this end, visual effects supervisor Peter Chiang was enlisted early on to design and implement the many complex shots required for the film."
Chiang had previously worked with Twohy on both Pitch Black and Below, so the director knew from experience the blend of skills that Chiang brings to the cinematic table. With a background in animation, Chiang is, according to the director, "that rare bird who can take it from concept to post-production. He can conceive it, shoot it and then help the compositor make it more photo-realistic in post-production."
Notes Chiang, "This project is an exception in terms that it has a fantastic design team, one of the best I've ever worked with, which means that right from the get-go we can design the overriding vision of the film and enhance the look of the physical reality that was built. So the concepts are held together more cohesively than as an afterthought in post-production.
"This whole film is visual spectacle," continues Chiang, "and it's fantastic to be given the opportunity to create these images. We've adopted the philosophy that convention is not an option. The design artists and illustrators are very conscious of the genre and what has been done before, and we're always going in new, different directions."
Chiang worked with teams from New Deal Studios, Hammerhead, Rhythm & Hues and Double Negative to get the multitude of effects on-screen, employing more than 400 artists to create complex composites, intricate miniatures and even, when the need arose, new computer code. No software was available that would make the ethereal Aereon, as played by Judi Dench, become translucent when she moved (an evolutionary advantage to the Elementals, her race)…so Chiang's team simply decided to create it from scratch.
Serious Action: Stunt Work
For a film with as much hard-boiled action as The Chronicles of Riddick, a top-notch stunt team was essential, and stunt coordinator Robert Brown spent months with his team preparing for the film's many spectacular fight scenes. "This is the toughest one I've ever done," admits Brown. "I didn't sleep a lot on this show. I had a little recorder next to my bed that I probably picked it up 10 to 15 times a night with ideas of how to accomplish the next day's work."
Brown enlisted the help of two military consultants, Ron Blecker and Matt Manner, to train the Necromonger and New Meccan soldiers. Over 300 extras were schooled for battle, which including training in formations, signals, tactics, posture, organization and overall unity.
Luckily for Brown, the producers were realistic about the scope of the challenge. "They pretty much told me to do whatever I needed to do," notes Brown, "so I pulled in Shawn Kautz, fight coordinator Bradley James Allan and Russ Stark, who is a Cirque de Soleil acrobat. We built a huge gym with flying tracks, trampolines, mini-tramps, air ramps…we had all the toys. And we had a great group of riggers, which is a dream team for a stunt coordinator."
Brown was also fortunate to be working with actors willing to go the distance. Vin Diesel (who, while working on XXX, had been slapped with the appellation "Air Diesel" by members of the stunt team) only used a double when the situation absolutely demanded it. Fight choreographer Bradley James Allan, who worked with Jackie Chan for seven years, marveled at Diesel's agility and natural talent. "He's like a coiled spring," says Allan, "a fantastic athlete. We didn't get a lot of time to train with Vin, so we put all these fight sequences together with a stunt team and videotaped them. Vin would watch, add his style of movement, decide what changes he wanted to make, and then on the day of shooting he'd just come in and do it. Just amazing."
Alexa Davalos had never done any stunts on film before, but plunged into her task with fearless abandon. "She jumped into shape in about two weeks," notes Bob Brown. "Then we put her on the cables and taught her how to flip around. Bradley then taught Alexa her first fight scenes, and she kicked ass, to say the least."
"Preparing to play Kyra was amazing," agrees Davalos. "It was a lot of searching within myself, lots of physical training, lots of stunt work, fighting, weapons, especially knife work."
Threads for a New World
The cast was also aided significantly in their character building efforts by the lavish creations of costume designers Ellen Mirojnick and Michael Dennison, who had only 12 weeks to design every single item for their department and then have them manufactured. Despite the obvious challenges, the opportunity to define so many intergalactic races and cultures was an attractive prospect. "It's a seductive thing for a designers," admits Mirojnick. "You don't necessarily get this opportunity all of the time. But truthfully, I didn't know what I was saying yes to."
What Mirojnick was saying "yes" to was a production that required 75 people working in the wardrobe departments both in Los Angeles and Vancouver, with separate dying, painting and manufacturing divisions. There were up to 20 people alone charged with dressing the Necromonger soldiers, and a team of 20 "Monger-Meggers" who hand-stitched the Necro uniforms. It took a whole day to sew the armor on Lord Marshal's suit, and took over two months to make just one set of his gloves. Eight thousand yards of fabric were utilized to create the Necro soldiers' undersuits, with 600 complete costumes manufactured for the film. Some of these teams worked 24 hours a day to create the unique styles of the film.
The simplest challenge for Mirojnick and Dennison, curiously enough, was Riddick's costume. As he wears the same threads throughout much of the movie, it simply required more than 60 t-shirts, 25 pairs of boots (with different designs for various terrain and stunts) and 40 pair of pants. "Ellen Mirojnick thinks like a filmmaker," notes Diesel, "so she is extremely invested in not only everyone's appearance, but how the appearance of one character will juxtapose with the appearance of another character in the same environment. We were so lucky to have both Ellen and Michael creating the look of our characters."
In addition to the time restraints, Mirojnick and Dennison were governed by the same motto that applied to the production design team: David Twohy did not want to see anything that had been done before. Mirojnick and Dennison found unexpected inspiration in the works of legendary sculptor and fashion illustrator Erte, one of the originators of the Art Deco style…particularly his bronze statues. Explains Mirojnick, "The statues represent how through the use of fire, which is painful, one creates a beautiful, very complete and decorated form and shape." Mirojnick married this concept to a scene in the script in which Dame Vaako burns away her flesh so that it becomes her makeup, "where the mineral content of the skin is celebrated and burned through to create a form."
Mirojnick adapted this idea of blistered, metallic skin and created "Mockadile," a pebbled, scaly fabric created through a complicated silk-screening process. Mockadile formed the basis of most of the costume designs for the film, whether kept simple when worn under armor or fashioned into exquisite gowns for Dame Vaako.
Mirojnick, Dennison, costume supervisor James Tyson (veteran of such films as Master and Commander, Batman Forever and Predator) and their team next tackled the formidable task of creating the look of the armor. For this, they found inspiration in the creations of Filippo Negroli (an Italian Renaissance armor designer), modified to reflect the stealth and post-modern technology of the Necromongers. Fabricated from various polyurethanes to make it easier to replicate and lighter to wear, the armor was also versatile enough in its design so that it could be modified further depending upon the wearer (the officer's rank) and the purpose (appearing in a close-up or utilized in a stunt).
Another highlight of the costuming was the dazzling gown of Aereon. Made entirely of Swarovski crystals, Aereon's dress makes her seem to float across the screen, the very essence of light and air. To complement the airy elegance of her gown, Dench's hair and makeup were kept simple-as key makeup designer Victoria Down points out, with Judi Dench the audience wants "to see that face and hear that voice. So it was a change of hair to make her timeless, it was a gown that made her timeless, and it was makeup that simply made her glow. Dame Judi did the rest."
End of an Epic
After 130 combined days of main and second unit filming and living and working together for months on end, the time finally came for Chronicles' cast and crew to take stock in what they had accomplished and what, hopefully, audiences could look forward to.
Offers Linus Roache, "It's a massive project, and you really get a sense of the breadth of the vision, and also the amount of work and skill that goes into pulling this off. There's a lot of love in the details. That's something you can't fake."
"I can't predict what people will feel or want," says Thandie Newton, "but just for me personally, what surprised me about this film is that it has everything you would expect from a genre film-great action, superb effects-but there's also a real depth and complexity. I believe in the characters, their needs, their wants and their passions. And the other thing which really came as a surprise to me in this kind of dark world is how much potential there is for humor and enjoyment."
Praised by cast and crew alike, Vin Diesel's complete devotion and dedication to the project was inspiring. "Vin is an amazing guy," enthuses Karl Urban. "When I got to town we had dinner, and he talked about nothing but the movie for five hours. His focus is incredible, and he's not one of these big stars who is solely concerned with how his character was being portrayed. Vin wants every character in this to shine. He wants the relationships to be as integrated as they can possibly be. He wants this film to stand up to repeat screenings. The Chronicles of Riddick is David Twohy's film and Vin Diesel's dream."
"Vin is one of the most misunderstood people I know," says executive producer George Zakk, who has known the actor since his starvation days as a struggling young New Yorker. "He has this great strength and presence, which is what we see, but deep down he's also a very caring person. He's like Riddick in that he doesn't always like to show it."
Diesel himself credits others for teaching him the value of ensemble acting. "When I did Saving Private Ryan, I learned first-hand how you enroll actors that might not have big roles. I didn't…I died 30 minutes into the movie. But both Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks made me feel like I was an equal participant, that I had an obligation to do everything in my power to make the movie as good as possible, even with my small role."
This sense of camaraderie was constantly evident in the working relationship with Diesel and David Twohy. The actor was often quoted as likening Twohy to his twin brother, so obvious was the director and actor's "almost telepathic understanding" and support for each other. Says Diesel, "The great thing about David is that I know in my heart he is rooting for me, and he knows in his heart that I'm rooting for him. We don't let each other off at any level, and we're always pushing each other to be the best that we can be."
Ultimately, as Diesel himself admitted, he was a big kid in the world's coolest (and possibly most expansive) playground. "Vin had such a good time making Riddick," says producer Scott Kroopf, "and he threw himself into it and was involved all the way through the creative process. I can't underestimate what he has added in terms of creating this story, and just pushing everyone for a general level of excellence and to dream big. He has this kind of infectious quality where he really gets everyone to believe that yeah, we can pull off a movie where we create different worlds from scratch. David and he make a great team."
Universal Pictures Presents A Radar Pictures / One Race Films Production of A David Twohy Film: Vin Diesel in The Chronicles of Riddick, starring Thandie Newton, Karl Urban, Colm Feore, Linus Roach, Keith David, Yorick van Wageningen, Alexa Davalos, Nick Chinlund and Judi Dench. The music is by Graeme Revell. The co-executive producer is Tom Engelman. The visual effects supervisor is Peter Chiang. The costume designers are Ellen Mirojnick and Michael Dennison. The editors are Martin Hunter and Dennis Virkler, A.C.E.; the production designer, Holger Gross; and the director of photography, Hugh Johnson. The executive producers are Ted Field, George Zakk and David Womark. It is based on characters created by Jim & Ken Wheat. The Chronicles of Riddick is produced by Scott Kroopf and Vin Diesel. The film is written and directed by David Twohy. c2004 Universal Studios.
About Vivendi Universal Games' The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
Home gamers now have the chance to experience a fantastical, futuristic world from the point-of-view of the most wanted man in the universe with the launch of Vivendi Universal Games' (in association with Tigon Studios) new videogame, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay, available on the Xbox video game system from Microsoft in June, 2004. Set prior to the events of both Universal Pictures' The Chronicles of Riddick and the 2000 cult classic Pitch Black, the game tells the story of Riddick's dramatic escape from the previously inescapable triple-max security slam Butcher Bay, home to the most violent prisoners in the galaxy. It provides an exciting new chapter in the story of one of the most enigmatic and compelling anti-heroes in motion pictures, offering gamers an intense experience integral to understanding the ever-growing mythology of the Riddick universe.
The Chronicles Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay features an original storyline that casts light on the evolution of the character of Riddick, revealing secrets about his past, as well as his epic destiny to come. The game deftly blends action and stealth elements, as players navigate the anti-hero through the harsh environments of the slam-dank tunnels, dimly lit corridors and other hazardous areas filled with guards, savage inmates and deadly creatures that prowl the darkness. Escape From Butcher Bay utilizes groundbreaking 3D technology and a revolutionary game design that fuses frenetic FPS action, stealth and brutal hand-to-hand combat. Developed by Starbreeze Studios and published by Vivendi Universal Games in association with Vin Diesel's Tigon Studios, the game has been rated "M" by the ESRB.
In the game, Richard B. Riddick is an intergalactic convict who, at the game's start, finds himself captured by mercenaries and locked down in the toughest prison in the galaxy. As this least likely of heroes, players must draw on their character's brains and brutality and attempt the unthinkable-escape from Butcher Bay. Played from a primarily first-person perspective (with special third-person actions), players will have to make maximum use of their environments to achieve their escape, including using shadows, subterfuge and distractions to avoid patrols. Moving and attacking in darkness is particularly effective for Riddick as his haunting "eye shine" gives him the ability to see without ambient light. However, stealth won't serve every situation and players will be able to take the action up-close and personal. As Riddick, players have the ability to to sneak up behind enemies for surprise attacks or fight face-to-face using fists, elbows and grapples. Additionally, players will be able to capture weapons such as shanks, shotguns, or assault rifles and use these to cut a path through any impediments to ultimately gain their freedom.
Riddick is licensed by Universal Studios Consumer Products Group (USCPG), responsible for global licensing and retail strategies as well as building brand recognition of the extensive catalogue of NBC Universal properties.
USCPG is a unit of NBC Universal, one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production and marketing of entertainment, news and information to a global audience. Formed in May 2004 through the combining of NBC and Vivendi Universal Entertainment, NBC Universal owns and operates the No. 1 television network, the fastest-growing Spanish-language network, a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group and world-renowned theme parks. NBC Universal is 80%-owned by General Electric, with 20% controlled by Vivendi Universal.
Founded by Vin Diesel in 2002, Tigon Studios (www.tigonstudios.com) is a game production company that strives to break new ground in interactive entertainment by combining key film components with unique game play, cutting edge technology and high production values. Tigon Studios will develop original games as well as be actively involved in the development process of video games based on motion pictures featuring Vin Diesel as the lead actor.
Headquartered in Los Angeles, Vivendi Universal Games (www.vugames.com) is a global leader in multi-platform interactive entertainment. The company develops, publishes and distributes interactive products across all major platforms including PCs, video game consoles and the Internet. Vivendi Universal Games' portfolio of development studios and publishing labels includes Blizzard Entertainment, Coktel, Fox Interactive, Knowledge Adventure, Massive Entertainment and Sierra Entertainment. Additionally, Vivendi Universal Games co-publishes and/or distributes titles for a number of strategic partners, including Interplay, inXile entertainment, Majesco and Mythic Entertainment, among others.
About Universal Studios Home Video's The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury
Based on a story by writer/director David Twohy, The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury is an all-new DVD adventure from acclaimed animator Peter Chung (The Animatrix "Matriculated"; MTV's Aeon Flux). Bridging the stories of Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick, Dark Fury features the voice and likeness of Vin Diesel as Riddick, the fugitive anti-hero. Delivering edgy, sci-fi adventure and an array of Riddick-inspired bonus materials, Dark Fury provides an all-new vision of the Riddick universe and features voice talent from both Pitch Black and Chronicles, including Diesel, Keith David, Nick Chinlund and Rhiana Griffith. The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury DVD is presented by Universal Home Entertainment Productions and premieres exclusively on DVD June 15, 2004.
When Riddick is captured by bounty hunters, he must battle soldiers of fortune and vicious creatures in the lethal slaughter cells of a massive starship. Riddick's night vision and ruthless combat skills are all that stand between him and a fate literally worse than death in this sci-fi thrill-ride.
The DVD is packed with bonus features designed to extend the Riddick experience, including: a behind-the-scenes look into the creative process behind The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury; a revealing interview with director Peter Chung, who provides insight into the making of the DVD as well as the art of animation; "Into the Light," with Diesel and Twohy, providing an in-depth look at the characters from The Chronicles of Riddick; and "Animatic to Animation," featuring moving storyboards that reveal how thrilling scenes from the DVD were taken from concept to final animation.
Known for his futuristic animation style and sensory stimulating material, renowned animator Peter Chung serves as director of The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury. Best known for directing and designing "Matriculated" from the best selling Animatrix DVD, as well as the groundbreaking MTV hit, Aeon Flux, Chung's distinctive and sophisticated style has won him fans and critical attention worldwide. Adding to the production value of The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury, renowned DJ Jason Bentley, along with acclaimed music house, Machinehead, create original music for the feature. Featuring a unique and complex blend of electronica, the soundtrack augments the overall action and excitement of the Riddick-inspired adventure.
Universal Studios Home Video is a unit of Universal Pictures, a division of Universal Studios (www.universalstudios.com). Universal Studios is a part of NBC Universal, one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production and marketing of entertainment, news and information to a global audience. Formed in May 2004 through the combining of NBC and Vivendi Universal Entertainment, NBC Universal owns and operates the No. 1 television network, the fastest-growing Spanish-language network, a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group and world-renowned theme parks. NBC Universal is 80%-owned by General Electric, with 20% controlled by Vivendi Universal.
About the Cast
A native of New York City, Vin Diesel (Riddick / Producer) has become one of Hollywood's most sought-after film stars. Diesel will next be seen in the highly anticipated science fiction feature, The Chronicles of Riddick, in which he reprises the title role of Richard B. Riddick. Produced by Diesel's company, One Race Productions, the film will be released on June 11th and is the follow-up to Pitch Black.
He was most recently seen in the action-thriller A Man Apart, which he also produced. Topping Diesel's list of credits is his star turn in The Fast and the Furious, for which he won an MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Team (alongside co-star Paul Walker) and was nominated for Best Male Performance. He also starred in the blockbuster XXX, which he executive-produced. In addition, Diesel appeared in Saving Private Ryan, for which he was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the film's ensemble cast. Other credits include roles in Boiler Room, Knockaround Guys and the voice of the title character in The Iron Giant, which won an Annie Award for Best Animated Feature.
Prior to appearing in these well-known features, Diesel wrote, produced, directed and starred in the independent short Multi-Facial, which explored the issue of being multi-racial in today's society. The film follows Diesel, where he is told he is either "too black" or "too white" for the part. Director Steven Spielberg created the role of Private Caparzo specifically for him in Saving Private Ryan after seeing the short. In addition, Diesel also penned, produced, directed and starred in the full-length feature Strays. The drama was selected to compete at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival.
Raised in Greenwich Village, Diesel gave his first stage performance at the age of seven at Theatre for the New City in Greenwich Village and continued to work in theatre throughout his childhood. After high school, he enrolled at Hunter College, where he majored in English with a concentration on creative writing. It was soon after that he began writing screenplays.
Diesel has recently ventured into the video game industry as well with the formation of Tigon Studios. The first project for the company, entitled The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, features the Richard B. Riddick character and will be released this summer to coincide with the opening of The Chronicles of Riddick. Diesel lent both his name and likeness to the game.
Diesel is currently shooting his first comedy, The Pacifier, opposite Faith Ford, Brad Garrett, Lauren Graham and Brittany Snow. The film follows an undercover agent, who, after failing to protect an important government scientist, learns that the scientist's family is in danger. In an effort to redeem himself, he agrees to take care of the man's children, only to discover that child care is his toughest mission yet. Following The Pacifier, Diesel will produce and play the title role in Hannibal, which tells the story of the Carthaginian general who rode an elephant across the Alps to attack Rome in the 3rd Century B.C.
Thandie Newton (Dame Vaako) continues to prove herself to be not only one of the most beautiful actresses in the business, but also one of the most talented.
She will soon be seen in the highly anticipated movie Crash, the debut feature of Emmy-winning Canadian director Paul Haggis, which is the story of a multi-racial group of characters whose lives interconnect following a car accident in Los Angeles. Newton stars opposite Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Esposito, Brendan Fraser, Ludacris and Ryan Phillippe.
Newton starred opposite Mark Wahlberg in Jonathan Demme's contemporary romantic thriller The Truth About Charlie, inspired by Stanley Donen's 1963 film Charade. Newton received rave reviews for her astonishingly original and bold performance as the title character in Jonathan Demme's 1998 adaptation of Toni Morrison's novel Beloved, co-starring Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover.
Born to a Zimbabwean mother and an English father, Newton was raised in Zambia until she was three-years-old. Due to political unrest in the country, her family then relocated to England.
At age 16, while studying modern dance at the London Art Educational School, she won the lead role in John Duigan's critically acclaimed 1990 coming-of-age film, Flirting, playing a Ugandan girl isolated in an Australian ladies academy who begins a romance with a teenage boy from a neighboring boarding school. After completing the film, she returned to England to continue her education, earning a BA with honors in anthropology at Cambridge University, while also acting in feature films for some of Hollywood's most acclaimed directors, including Neil Jordan (Interview With the Vampire) and James Ivory (Jefferson in Paris).
Newton also appeared as a troubled singer opposite Tupac Shakur and Tim Roth in Vondie Curtis-Hall's comedy/drama, Gridlock'd, and won critics' praise as the exiled wife of an African leader in Bernardo Bertolucci's Besieged.
Newton can currently be seen guest-starring on NBC's hit drama ER, playing a Congolese Aid Worker; this marks her American television debut.
Thandie Newton resides in England with her husband and daughter.
Karl Urban (Vaako) is best known for his dynamic role as Rohan warrior Eomer in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Director/Writer/Producer Peter Jackson cast Urban in The Lord of the Rings after viewing a rough cut of the critically acclaimed indie film The Price of Milk, which garnered Urban a Best Actor nomination at the New Zealand Film Awards.
Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Karl first appeared on television as a child. Throughout his school years, he wrote, directed and starred in many film and stage productions. As a young adult, he postponed his university studies to further pursue his acting career, training and working throughout "Australasia" in theatre and film.
Urban's feature film debut was in Heaven, starring Martin Donovan and Richard Schiff. His other film credits include Via Satellite and Ghost Ship, in which he starred opposite Gabriel Byrne and Julianna Margulies.
Karl will next be seen opposite Matt Damon in Paul Greengrass' The Bourne Supremacy.
In the last year, Colm Feore (Lord Marshal) has appeared in John Woo's Paycheck, starring opposite Ben Affleck, and in Highwayman, opposite James Caviezel, in addition to his starring role in The Chronicles of Riddick.
His additional credits include starring opposite Antonio Banderas in the HBO Original Movie And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself; with Richard Gere in Chicago, which won the SAG award for best ensemble cast; National Security, with Martin Lawrence; The Sum of All Fears, with Ben Affleck; and in the miniseries Trudeau, which garnered Feore a 2002 Gemini Award for Best Actor in a Miniseries and a 2002 Monte Carlo Television Festival Nomination for Best Actor.
Feore won a Jutra Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in The Red Violin and earned a Genie Award nomination for his performance as Canada's eccentric music genius in Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, which won the Genie Award for Best Picture.
Feore first gained prominence as one of Canada's premiere stage actors through 13 seasons with the prestigious Stratford Festival, playing virtually all of Shakespeare's leading men, from Richard III and Iago to Romeo and Hamlet. He was recently onstage as Claudius in the Public Theater production of Hamlet in New York. He will also be making a return to Stratford for its 50th Anniversary season playing Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady.
Major roles in such projects as Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor, with Ben Affleck and Kate Beckinsale; the cable movies The Day Reagan Was Shot, with Richard Dreyfuss, and Sins of the Father, with Tom Sizemore; Point of Origin, with Ray Liotta; Ignition, with Bill Pullman; The Caveman's Valentine, with Samuel L. Jackson; Titus, with Anthony Hopkins; The Insider, with Russell Crowe and Al Pacino; City of Angels, with Meg Ryan; and John Woo's Face/Off, with John Travolta and Nicholas Cage, have made him a familiar face in American motion pictures.
His television work includes starring roles in the movies Trapped in a Purple Haze and Forget Me Never, with Mia Farrow; the miniseries Haven, with Natasha Richardson; Widows; Nuremberg, directed by Yves Simoneau; Stephen King's Storm Of the Century; the Emmy Award-winning telefeature Truman, with Gary Sinise; and The Virginian, starring and directed by Bill Pullman.
Linus Roach (The Purifier) first gained American recognition as the title character in the Antonia Bird's controversial Priest. He followed this up with Iain Softley's screen adaptation of the classic Henry James novel, The Wings of the Dove, starring opposite Helena Bonham Carter. He recently starred opposite Angelina Jolie and Clive Owen in Martin Campbell's Beyond Borders and will next be seen opposite Julianne Moore in Joseph Ruben's The Forgotten and opposite Ian Hart in John Furse's Blind Flight. Other films include John Polson's Siam Sunset, Gregory Hoblit's Hart's War and Julian Temple's Pandaemonium, for which Roache won the Best Actor award at the Evening Standard Film Awards.
Roache received a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of Robert Kennedy in the F/X television film RFK, and also co-starred in HBO's award-winning The Gathering Storm. His other television projects include leading roles in Shot Through the Heart (also for HBO) and the BBC miniseries Seaforth.
His extensive theatrical experience includes Richard II and Coriolanus opposite Ralph Fiennes at London's Almeida Theatre and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Versatile actor Keith David (Imam) has distinguished himself in a career built on a variety of diverse characterizations: a Korean war veteran running a pool hall in Harlem; a guide to the underworld with an elegant walk and a haunting laugh; a Moslem cleric stranded on an alien planet.
His extraordinary range of talent is evidenced by his body of work. In addition to The Chronicles of Riddick, he recently co-starred in the hit Barbershop. Other credits include Agent Cody Banks, Hollywood Homicide, Requiem for a Dream and Pitch Black. Prior to that, David was featured in There's Something About Mary and Armageddon. He received an Emmy nomination for his work in Showtime's The Tiger Woods Story. Other credits include Dead Presidents and Spike Lee's Clockers.
David is proud to have narrated Ken Burns' millennium project Jazz for PBS, which garnered him another Emmy nomination for his work. He was also the narrator for the recently aired Horatio's Drive and Mark Twain, and will be narrating Burns' next production, the biography of the boxer Jack Johnson. The actor also voiced the lead character on the animated series version of the comic book Spawn for HBO, as well as the lead in the Disney animated series Gargoyles. Keith can be heard commercially on behalf of the U.S. Navy.
Such a demanding schedule is nothing new to the actor. Immediately after his graduation from The Julliard School he was hired as an understudy for the role of Tullus Aufidius in Shakespeare's Coriolanus at Joseph Papp's New York Public Theater; ironically, 10 years later, he co-starred in the same role opposite Christopher Walken and was the recipient of the Actor's Equity St. Claire Bayfield Award. In 1992, David was recognized with a Tony nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical for co-starring with Gregory Hines in the Broadway production of Jelly's Last Jam. Several years later, he starred on Broadway in August Wilson's Seven Guitars. David has also performed his jazz/cabaret act at New York's legendary Hotel Delmonico and the venerable Cinegrill in Los Angeles. He fulfilled a lifelong ambition by portraying Othello at the New York Shakespeare Festival.
Keith David gained wide attention in 1986 for his role as King in the OscarR-winning film Platoon. He has starred with Gene Hackman and Sharon Stone in The Quick and the Dead and with Richard Gere and Kim Basinger in Final Analysis. David has also worked with such notable directors as Clint Eastwood (Bird), Steven Spielberg (Always) and John Carpenter (The Thing and They Live).
Born in Harlem, NY and raised in East Elmhurst, Queens, Keith sang in the All Borough choir as a boy. He knew he wanted to act at the age of nine when he appeared as the Cowardly Lion in his school's production of The Wizard of Oz. He later attended New York's famed High School of the Performing Arts and then graduated from Julliard. There he studied under such voice and speech teachers as Robert Williams and Edith Skinner.
Yorick van Wageningen (The Guv) most recently starred opposite Angelina Jolie and Clive Owen in Beyond Borders, his U.S. feature film debut. Van Wageningen was born in Baarn, Holland, and still resides in the Netherlands. With an acting career that spans over 20 years in theater and film, van Wageningen has a growing list of credits.
In 2001, the American Film Institute brought the actor to the Santa Barbara Film Festival for the feature Total Loss, which was in competition. More recently, he starred in Peter Greenaway's trilogy The Tulse Luper Suitcases, which was at the Cannes Film Festival and netted director Greenaway a Golden Palm nomination.
The recipient of the Prix Jean Marais Award at the National French Theatre for his role in Les Trois Moosquetaries, van Wageningen has a successful stage career in the Netherlands and continues to appear in numerous films both abroad and in the United States. In the Netherlands and Europe, van Wageningen starred in the TV series Goede tijden, slechte tijden and 20 Plus, and the features Soul Assassin, Me and Morrison and Simon: An English Legionnaire.
Alexa Davalos (Kyra) makes her feature film debut starring in The Chronicles of Riddick.
Last September, Davalos was seen opposite Antonio Banderas in the HBO original film And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself. Directed by Bruce Beresford, the film is based on the story of Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, who made a deal with legendary Hollywood director D.W. Griffith and Harry Aitken to help the filmmakers stage the first Hollywood action movie by essentially putting the cameras right in the middle of battle. Davalos played Teddy Sampson, a young actress starring in the film whose acting chops allowed her to portray someone else after cameras stopped rolling. Jim Broadbent and Eion Bailey also starred. And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself was nominated for a Critic's Choice Award.
In 2002, Davalos starred in The Ghost of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Charles Lyons' directorial debut. This short film follows James Powell, a college senior, who falls for Bess Gunther, played by Davalos, a sophomore. However, the attractive Bess is deeply in love with F. Scott Fitzgerald, or "Scotty," as she likes to call him. The obsession leads Bess down a road James prefers not to follow. Years later, he wonders whether she's the one that got away. Charlie Hofheimer also stars. The film was an official selection to the 2002 Toronto Film Festival.
That same year, Davalos starred in Disturbing the Peace, the directorial debut of noted writer Mark Bomback for the 2002 Sundance Institute's Director's Lab. The project is writer/director Bomback's adaptation of a Richard Yates novel. The story follows a suburbanite who thinks his life should be so extraordinary he makes rash decisions in the hopes of attaining it. Davalos stars as a young woman who has an affair with him to test the boundaries of her power over men.
Nick Chinlund (Toombs) maintains a busy acting career in motion pictures and television after starting his career on the stage. His role in The Chronicles of Riddick marks a re-teaming with writer/director Twohy, for whom Chinlund appeared in Below. The prolific actor was recently seen starring opposite Bruce Willis in Antoine Fuqua's Tears of the Sun.
Born and raised in East Harlem (where he still maintains a residence), Chinlund played basketball at Brown University before an injury curtailed his sports career during freshman year. Soon thereafter, he traded the court for the stage when he took up acting classes, graduating from Brown with a degree in history.
Before relocating to Los Angeles, Chinlund worked the boards on the east coast, where his theatre credits include the off-Broadway productions of Owl's Breath; Mothers, Brothers and Others; and Corner Boys. He appeared at the renowned Williamstown Theater Festival in Massachusetts in such productions as Mother Courage, The Legend of Oedipus and American Clock, the latter for acclaimed director Austin Pendleton. His stage work in L.A. includes Configuration, Maps for Drowners, Partners and A View from the Bridge.
Chinlund segued into motion pictures with a role in Lethal Weapon 3. Other feature film credits include Con Air, Bad Girls, A Brother's Kiss (which he also co-produced), Eraser, The Kid, Once in the Life, 100 Mile Rule, Amy's Orgasm, Training Day and Last Call. He is currently in Shanghai filming writer/director Kurt Wimmer's futuristic thriller Ultraviolet, opposite Milla Jovovich.
On the small screen, Chinlund has appeared in The X Files and had recurring roles on two NBC dramas-Providence and Third Watch. Guest appearances include such series as C.S.I., NYPD Blue, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Law & Order, Law & Order: S.V.U. and Gilmore Girls. He has also co-starred in the TNT miniseries Rough Riders for director John Milius, Showtime's Rebel Highway: Reform School Girls and the telefilms Resurrection and Letter to My Killer.
Since playing Ophelia in Hamlet at the Old Vic 40 years ago, Dame Judi Dench (Aereon) has received wide critical acclaim for a career marked by outstanding performances in both classical and contemporary roles. She has won more than 25 awards-including nine British Academy Awards-in a career that has encompassed the stage, television and motion pictures. She received the OBE (Order of the British Empire) in 1970 for services to the theatre, and subsequently became a DBE (Dame of the British Empire) in 1988. Most recently, she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from The Julliard School, paying homage to her as an "outstanding artist and cultural leader."
Her feature film credits include: Franco Zeffirelli's Tea With Mussolini; Mrs. Brown (for which she won a Golden Globe, BAFTA Award and OscarR nomination); Wetherby; A Room With a View (for which she won a BAFTA Award as Best Supporting Actress); 84 Charing Cross Road; A Handful of Dust (another BAFTA Award-winning performance as Best Supporting Actress); and two films for Kenneth Branagh, Henry V and Hamlet. Dame Judi also played the infamous 'M' in the latter Bond films- Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is Not Enough and Die Another Day.
Dench won an Academy AwardR, a BAFTA Award and was named Best Supporting Actress by the National Society of Film Critics for her performance in the hit romantic comedy Shakespeare in Love. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and an OscarR for Best Supporting Actress for Lasse Hallstrom's Chocolat.
Dame Judi won a BAFTA Award for her performance in The Last of the Blond Bombshells for Working Title Television. In 2001 she filmed Iris, directed by Richard Eyre, with Jim Broadbent (for which she received an Academy AwardR nomination) and The Shipping News, directed by Lasse Hallstrom, with Kevin Spacey and Julianne Moore.
She continues working on the London stage, starring in David Hare's Amy's View (winning a Tony Award for her Broadway performance), Peter Hall's The Royal Family and the two-hander The Breath of Life at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, with Dame Maggie Smith.
Dench's recent film credits also include Charles Dance's Ladies in Lavender. Onstage, she most recently performed in All's Well That Ends Well for the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon and London's West End.
About the Filmmakers
As both writer and director, David Twohy (Writer/Director) has contributed much to the world of adventure, fantasy, horror and science fiction, consistently elevating the genre and leading him to be named one of Entertainment Weekly's "100 most creative people in Hollywood."
Twohy first came to attention with his screenplay for the Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones-starrer The Fugitive (story and co-screenplay), nominated in 1993 for Best Screenplay Previously Produced or Published. Other writing credits include the cult classic Warlock; Terminal Velocity, starring Charlie Sheen and Nastassja Kinski, on which Twohy also served as executive producer; Waterworld (co-writer), starring Kevin Costner; Ridley Scott's G.I. Jane (co-screenplay), starring Demi Moore; and Impostor (co-screenplay), starring Gary Sinise and Madeleine Stowe.
Twohy made his directorial debut in 1994 with the Showtime Original Movie The Grand Tour, which he adapted for the screen from Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore's haunting novella Vintage Season. Starring Jeff Daniels, The Grand Tour received the Grand Prix at the Festival Du Film Fantastique and a Golden Scroll from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. He was honored again in 1996 by the Academy with a Saturn Award for his feature directorial debut, The Arrival. Also written by Twohy, The Arrival starred Lindsay Crouse and Charlie Sheen and was released by Live Entertainment.
Twohy's next writing/directing venture was one of 2000's most unexpected films, Pitch Black. Released by Universal, this modestly budgeted movie shot in the Australian outback startled critics and audiences alike with its chilling twists and turns of story. This was also the film that would introduce an actor named Vin Diesel to the world.
In 2002, Dimension Films released Below. Directed by Twohy and co-written with Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream) and Lucas Sussman, Below follows a series of haunting and inexplicable occurrences on a World War II submarine. It stars Bruce Greenwood, Olivia Wiliams and Matthew Davis.
Twohy's current project is the long-awaited follow-up to Pitch Black, The Chronicles of Riddick. The action takes place five years after the end of the original film and finds Riddick facing off against the Necromongers, conquering warriors intent on killing or converting all human life. His one-man rebellion eventually leads him to the Necromonger command ship, where he is pitted against the supreme Necro leader, the Lord Marshal, in an apocalyptic battle with possibly the fate of all beings-both living and dead-hanging in the balance.
The Chronicles of Riddick boasts a strong ensemble cast, including Dame Judi Dench, Thandie Newton, Colm Feore and Karl Urban. The film debuts in theaters June 11th of 2004.
Twohy attended California State University, Long Beach, graduating in 1979 with a major in radio / television / film and a minor in theatre arts.
Scott Kroopf (Producer) was recently named President of the Motion Picture Group at Intermedia. Prior to joining Intermedia, Kroopf was President and COO of Radar Pictures, which he formed four years ago with Ted Field. At Radar, Kroopf had assembled a slate of over 25 active projects embracing a wide range of styles and featuring some of the finest filmmakers working today.
Most recently, Kroopf produced The Last Samurai, directed by Ed Zwick and starring Tom Cruise, and Merchant-Ivory's Le Divorce, starring Kate Hudson and Naomi Watts. Kroopf also supervised the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and is producing the upcoming Son of the Mask.
Kroopf and Fields built Radar on the foundation of the former Interscope Communications, where Kroopf produced over 50 films in 14 years, including Jumanji, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, Pitch Black, Runaway Bride, Very Bad Things, Gridlock'd, Mr. Holland's Opus, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Cocktail, Three Men and a Baby and Outrageous Fortune. At Interscope, Kroopf started as an in-house producer and development executive and eventually became President of the company.
Before joining Interscope, Kroopf was Executive in Charge of Production for Embassy Pictures from 1982 to 1985, where he was involved in the development and production of Stand by Me, The Sure Thing and A Chorus Line. He began his motion picture production career at Robe-Ackerman, a commercial/television/documentary production company.
Brothers Jim Wheat and Ken Wheat (Based on Characters Created By) co-wrote the screenplay for the sleeper hit Pitch Black (along with David Twohy) and created the story upon which the screenplay was based. Together, the brothers wrote, produced and directed the feature films After Midnight and Lies, and co-wrote the screenplays for the hit horror films The Fly II and Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master.
Their additional feature film credits include writing and producing Silent Scream, as well as writing The Return. They also served as executive producers on Martin Scorsese's acclaimed documentary American Boy: A Profile of: Steven Prince.
For television, Jim and Ken wrote and directed the telefeature Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, and authored the teleplays for Free Fall, It Came from Outer Space II, Rattled, Trick of the Eye and The Birds II: Land's End. They also wrote the made-for-television movie The Stepford Husbands.
Ted Field (Executive Producer) owns Los Angeles-based film production company Radar Pictures, formerly Interscope Communications. Beginning in 1982, as chairman of Interscope, Field served as producer or executive producer responsible for more than 50 major theatrical motion pictures, generating cumulative worldwide box office gross receipts of over $3 billion. These films include The Last Samurai (starring Tom Cruise), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Runaway Bride, Jumanji, Mr. Holland's Opus, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Three Men and a Baby, Cocktail, Bird on a Wire, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Outrageous Fortune.
In 1990, Field and partner Jimmy Iovine created Interscope Records. One of the most innovative labels in the music business, Interscope Records has achieved platinum-selling success with artists such as Eminem, No Doubt, Dr. Dre, Snoop Doggy Dogg, The Wallflowers, Smash Mouth, BLACKstreet, 2Pac, Nine Inch Nails, Bush and 4 Non Blondes. In 1999, Universal's acquisition of Polygram resulted in an Interscope-led record group, headed by Field and Iovine, which included such venerable labels as Geffen and A&M. Field sold Interscope Records to Universal in 2001 and became chairman of online music company ARTISTdirect, Inc. and launched a new record label, ARTISTdirect Records, with a diverse roster including hip-hop, rap, alternative and rock artists.
Field, (born Frederick Woodruff Field) grew up in Chicago, Illinois and Anchorage, Alaska. When he was 21, he permanently settled in Southern California.
Until 1984, Field was a co-owner of Field Enterprises, Inc., a media conglomerate that owned numerous television stations, The Chicago Sun-Times and Cabot, Cabot and Forbes, a large real estate company; it also acquired Panavision Incorporated from Warner Communications, Inc., which was ultimately sold in 1987. In addition, Field has been an investor in partnerships formed for the purpose of acquiring control of public corporations, among which was the acquisition of the Crown Zellerback Corporation.
Field's extensive philanthropic work includes support for organizations ranging from American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), the Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Association, the Sundance Institute, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Rainforest Foundation, the Los Angeles Music Center, and the Rape Treatment Center.
A native of Montreal, Canada, George Zakk (Executive Producer) has been instrumental in films such as Pitch Black, The Iron Giant and The Fast and the Furious, as well as producing Diesel's directorial debut, Strays, which was in competition in the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. Zakk also served as executive producer on the summer 2002 blockbuster XXX and co-producer on A Man Apart. Zakk is partnered with Vin Diesel in the production company One Race Films, and they continue their collaboration on the upcoming The Pacifier, starring Diesel and executive-produced by Zakk.
Zakk's entertainment industry career began as a roadie and road manager on tours for bands spanning the smallest road acts to the largest stadium concerts.
David Womark (Executive Producer) began his career as an assistant director, where he worked on over 20 movies, including the award-winning A Dangerous Woman, starring Debra Winger and Barbara Hershey, and Paris Trout, starring Dennis Hopper; as well as on the Emmy Award-winning miniseries Family of Spies.
His later work in production includes the motion pictures Dante's Peak, The X Files: The Movie and Edtv. At Universal, Womark has served as an associate producer on such recent hits as Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Jurassic Park III, The Hulk and currently as the executive producer on The Chronicles of Riddick.
Hugh Johnson (Director of Photography) photographed three highly ambitious Ridley Scott films: 1492: Conquest of Paradise, starring Gérard Depardieu, Armand Assante and Sigourney Weaver; G.I. Jane, starring Demi Moore and Viggo Mortensen; and White Squall, starring Jeff Bridges; he also served as second unit director on 1492 and G.I. Jane. Johnson's additional feature film credits including directing the feature Chill Factor, an action drama starring Cuba Gooding, Jr.
The Chronicles of Riddick marks the second collaboration between Twohy and Johnson, as Twohy co-wrote the screenplay for G.I. Jane.
German-born Holger Gross (Production Designer) began his career in Berlin, working as production designer on a large number of films and telefeatures, German and international co-productions. Gross, living in Los Angeles, has since served as production designer on a wide variety of feature film projects, including two feature films for director John Woo-Broken Arrow, starring John Travolta and Christian Slater, and Windtalkers, with Nicolas Cage. Gross also twice served as production designer for Roland Emmerich-on the large-scale science fiction adventure Stargate and on Universal Soldier.
His other film production design credits have included The Negotiator, directed by F. Gary Gray; Deep Rising, directed by Stephen Sommers; and earlier, American Ninja 2: The Confrontation; Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace; Hero and the Terror; Pulse; A Walk on the Moon; The Lightship; and Possession.
Gross won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Art Direction for Madonna's "Express Yourself."
Martin Hunter (Film Editor) began his career auspiciously, serving as editor on Stanley Kubrick's now classic wartime drama Full Metal Jacket. Since then, Hunter has edited a number of diverse projects on both sides of the Atlantic, including Mike Figgis' Liebestraum; Dominic Sena's Brad Pitt/Juliette Lewis-starrer Kalifornia; three features for Paul W.S. Anderson-Mortal Kombat, Event Horizon and Soldier; and the recent hit Underworld.
Hunter has previously worked with David Twohy twice, serving as editor on both The Arrival and Below. He also edited the acclaimed telefeature, The Water Engine.
Dennis Virkler, A.C.E. (Film Editor) received Academy AwardR nominations for his editing work on both The Hunt for Red October and The Fugitive, which also garnered him Best Film Editing nods from BAFTA and the American Cinema Editors.
Virkler's career as a film editor began in the early 1970s with such made-for-television movies as Frankenstein, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Turn of the Screw and The Kansas City Massacre. His talents quickly being recognized by feature filmmakers, Virkler soon found himself editing such features as Burnt Offerings, The Bad News Bears Go to Japan, Continental Divide, Sharky's Machine, Airplane II: The Sequel, Gorky Park, The River Rat and others.
Virkler's additional feature film editing credits over the past decade have included the hit action films Under Siege, Batman Forever, The Devil's Own, Batman & Robin, Collateral Damage and Daredevil and the stylish thriller A Perfect Murder.
Ellen Mirojnick's (Costume Designer) well respected design talents have made an impact in a diversity of motion pictures. Her work was most recently seen in the thriller Twisted, starring Ashley Judd. Her previous contributions span a wide array of motion pictures, from comedies (Rat Race and What Women Want) to action films (Face/Off) and horror (The Haunting).
Mirojnick has collaborated with some of the industry's leading directors, including Oliver Stone, Richard Attenborough, Adrian Lyne, Paul Verhoeven, John Woo, Jan de Bont and Renny Harlin. Her work has appeared in such motion pictures as It Runs in the Family, Unfaithful (which was nominated for a Costume Designers Guild Award), America's Sweethearts, Don't Say a Word, One Night at McCool's, Hollow Man, Cocktail, Black Rain, Always, Nobody's Fool, Reckless, Jacob's Ladder, Mickey Blue Eyes, A Perfect Murder, Starship Troopers (Saturn Award-winning), Chaplin (BAFTA-nominated for Best Costume Design), Wall Street, Fatal Attraction, The Ghost and the Darkness, Twister, Basic Instinct, Strange Days, Showgirls, Talk Radio, Speed, Intersection and Cliffhanger.
Her designs for the telefeature Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella garnered her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Costume Design (for a Variety or Music Program).
Michael Dennison (Costume Designer) recently designed the costumes for Mona Lisa Smile, starring Julia Roberts and an ensemble cast, following a long and distinguished industry career. The Chronicles of Riddick re-unites Dennison with costume designer Ellen Mirojnick, with whom he's worked on many projects.
Dennison's more than 20 credits as wardrobe supervisor or costumer have included The World According to Garp, Sophie's Choice, Moscow on the Hudson, The Falcon and the Snowman, Jagged Edge, Heartburn, The Mosquito Coast, Beaches, Jacob's Ladder, Chaplin, TV's Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella for The Disney Channel, Starship Troopers, Snow Falling on Cedars, What Women Want and Unfaithful.
Peter Chiang(Visual Effects Supervisor) re-teams with David Twohy on The Chronicles of Riddick, following their earlier collaborations on Pitch Black and Below. Chiang began his career in various visual effects capacities on such films as Krull, Supergirl, Labyrinth, Little Shop of Horrors, Batman and The Neverending Story II: The Next Chapter. He first became a visual effects supervisor on the production Hackers.
Chiang's credits as visual effects supervisor have included The Wind in the Willows, The Borrowers (garnering a BAFTA nomination for visual effects), Elizabeth, Enemy at the Gates, The Tailor of Panama, Captain Corelli's Mandolin and Johnny English.
Graeme Revell (Music By) is regarded as one of film's most versatile and honored composers. Born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1955, he graduated from the University of Auckland with degrees in economics and politics, while being classically trained in both piano and French horn. Revell worked as a regional planner in Australia and Indonesia, and as an orderly in an Australian psychiatric hospital, before devoting himself full time to music. He was a member of SPK, a '70s music group, for which he played keyboards and percussion. Their single "In Flagrante Delicot" was the basis for his first film score, the Phillip Noyce thriller Dead Calm, which won him an Australian Film Institute award and launched a remarkable career.
Revell's more than 70 film and television composing credits have included The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, The Crow, The Tie That Binds, Strange Days, From Dusk Till Dawn, The Craft, The Crow: City of Angels, The Saint, Spawn, Chinese Box, The Negotiator, The Siege, Gossip, Titan A.E., Calle 54, Red Planet, the miniseries of Frank Herbert's Dune, Blow, Human Nature, Anne Frank: The Whole Story (TV), Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Collateral Damage, Jerry Bruckheimer's hugely successful television series CSI: Miami, Daredevil, Freddy Vs. Jason, Out of Time and, most recently, Walking Tall. He previously collaborated with David Twohy on both Pitch Black and Below.
Revell's honors include a Venice Film Festival Golden Osella Award for Chinese Box, and BMI Film Music Awards for The Crow, The Saint, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, CSI: Miami and Daredevil.
+the chronicles of riddick+
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