The Next Chronicles of Riddick Already in Pre-Production?

According to Latino Review, "Despite a disappointing worldwide box-office gross of $115 million, 'The Chronicles of Riddick' was generally liked by the viewing public. Vin Diesel and director David Twohy chose to do something different than make a straight forward sequel to their 2000 cult sci-fi/horror film 'Pitch Black'. They expanded upon the universe of Diesel's character Richard B. Riddick, putting him at the center of a story of cosmic proportions. The film had two things going against it. It was forced to obtain a PG-13 rating by the studio, alienating some of the fans of 'Pitch Black' who wanted another hardcore R film and it was released in early summer 2004, a week after the third Harry Potter film.

Like 'Pitch Black', 'The Chronicles of Riddick' did pretty well on home video and has expanded into a successful video game franchise. 'Escape from Butcher Bay', featuring a scenario where players could be Riddick and escape from a slam prison, was so popular that a second game was recently released. At this time 'Assault on Dark Athena' happens to be the most popular game in the country and while promoting its release on Jonathan Ross' show last month, Diesel claimed that Twohy was finishing up the script for the next film and was hoping shooting could begin next year. This sounds a little bit like wishful thinking on Diesel's part, but if you remember, 'Chronicles of Riddick' was always envisioned by Diesel and Twohy as a trilogy. If 'COR' were 'The Lord of the Rings' then 'Pitch Black' would be 'The Hobbit.'

Diesel had a huge hit with 'Fast & Furious' early this month which not only made the biggest April debut on record with a $72 million opening weekend, but has grossed $146 million to date. I was personally wishing for this while the film was in production in the hopes that Universal Studios would see Diesel's box-office potential again and greenlight another Riddick film, but I recently discovered that as early as January of this year, pre-production on the next film was already underway."

Ron Henriques at Latino Review discusses more about the Blu-ray commentary from Diesel and Twohy that was recorded this January in which the two discuss plans for more films to expand on the Riddick mythology.
If you're interested definitely read it at Latino Review.

Until then, a "Chronicles of Riddick 2" can be hitting theaters sometime in 2012.
More news to come! Catch ya' later!