The latest cinematic adventure of Riddick, the vicious yet resourceful criminal anti-hero played by Vin Diesel who first appeared in the 2000 sci-fi thriller Pitch Black and later returned in his own big-budget adventure The Chronicles of Riddick in 2004, has slowly been gaining momentum since it was first announced nearly two years ago. We previously reported on the new film, which will be simply titled Riddick, HERE and HERE . Today Diesel has released a piece of concept art on his Facebook page. You can check out the full image below this article.

The independently-financed film will reportedly discard the elaborate mythology that Diesel and writer-director David Twohy were initially developing for Riddick to explore and take the character back to basics, putting him into a struggle for survival on a hostile alien planet that will make every other battle he has fought in his life seem like a prelude. Riddick finds himself pitted against otherworldly beasts and mercenaries out for his blood. The project has an undetermined 2012 release date.

It’s been more than a year and a half since we first reported that a new movie featuring Riddick, the badass monster-slaying criminal with excellent night vision first played by Vin Diesel in the 2000 sci-fi/horror hit Pitch Black, was going ahead with Diesel once more starring and David Twohy, the writer and director of Pitch Black and its big-budget 2004 sequel The Chronicles of Riddick, back on scripting and directing duties (you can read about that HERE). The movie will be titled simply Riddick and will reportedly be smaller in scale than Chronicles and feature the character doing what he does best: kicking all kinds of ass while saying very little.

The Chronicles of Riddick was intended to be the start of a new trilogy for the character as he ventured into the realm of dark fantasy as opposed to the B-movie creature feature style of Pitch Black, but Universal Pictures put any plans for future sequels on hold when the movie only grossed back $57 million of its reported $110 million budget. Undeterred by this development Twohy and Diesel have persisted in bringing a new Riddick movie to the big screen over the years; in that time Diesel has found success with the Fast and the Furious franchise and Twohy has directed A Perfect Getaway.

First there came Pitch Black, the small cult classic horror movie about a group of people who are trying to get off a dark and deadly planet where vicious creatures lurk in the shadows. After that came the much bigger-budgeted sequel, The Chronicles of Riddick. So are we now ready for even more adventures with elusive fugitive?

Neither of those first two films made that much more money than they cost to produce, but regardless, Universal Pictures has locked down star Vin Diesel and is moving forward with a third film in the franchise, currently being called Riddick.

The plot of the movie is unknown, but sources claim that it will attempt to reacquire that small-scale feel that the original film possessed. David Twohy is set to once again write and direct the new installment; he handled the same duties for both of the previous films. Aside from the Riddick series of films, Twohy also wrote and directed recent flick A Perfect Getaway, and worked on the screenplays for The Fugitive, Waterworld, and G.I. Jane respectively.

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (Xbox 360)
Developer: Starbreeze Studios
Atari
Release: April 7, 2009

More often than not, video games based on movies are, to put it gently, awful. Fortunately, some decent film-based games do slip trough, and I’m happy to say that The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is a decent enough game. It does suffer from a few problems, but the overall game play, eye catching graphics and outstanding sound design make this a worthwhile purchase. Certainly, one of the great things about this game is that you get not one, but two games. Not only do you get the new Assault on Dark Athena game, but you also get a remake of 2004’s Escape from Butcher Bay (which was release for the original X-Box). Butcher Bay is apparently regarded as a bit of a classic, and it’s nice to see it brought up to date for the PS3 and 360. It’s too bad that the follow-up is just a mediocre shooter that doesn’t make good use of its central game play element, namely, Riddick’s ability to see in the dark.

Escape from Butcher Bay serves as a prequel to Pitch Black, and shows how Riddick got his most unique feature, his glow in the dark eyes. It also serves to fill in the back story between Riddick and William Johns, his jailer from Pitch Black. In the game, Riddick is sent to the titular prison of Butcher Bay, and immediately plans to make his escape, while fighting his fellow inmates. Assault on Dark Athena follows that story up with a similar one as Riddick is captured by mercenaries and again has to escape, this time from a space ship. Butcher Bay has a fun story, as you see how Riddick got those amazing eyes, and how he makes his eventual escape. Dark Athena also has a decent story, but feels more like a retread, although they do use it to explain some of Riddick’s softness for kids.