Trivia / The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)

• Awesome, Dear Boy: Vin Diesel lobbied hard for Judi Dench to appear in this film, because he is a huge fan and because he'd heard that Dame Judi DM's for her grandchildren and he wanted to be able to say he played a game where Dame Judi Dench was the Dungeon Master.
• Bonus Material: The DVD had special features that looked into the backstory of the character's life, his weapons and training; background information on the Necromonger cult; the video diaries of the bounty hunter Toombs, which serves as a sort of prequel to the film and a virtual guide to the universe with info on characters and settings.
• Box Office Bomb: It made almost $173 million against budget of 105...but two third of it came from foreign market, essentially leaving the film in the loss for accounting department.
• Executive Meddling: Originally, Rhianna Griffith, the actress who played Jack, was slated to return, a decision backed by Vin Diesel. Instead, Davalos got the role because studio executives thought she was prettier. Likewise, the second live action movie featured significant cuts which made the movie less fun to watch.
• The Other Darrin: In Pitch Black, Jack was played by Rhiana Griffith. In Chronicles, Alexa Davalos took over the role, with a new name and a completely new look. Her only explanation for how changed she was: "I'm a whole new animal." Many fans were not happy. Salt in the wound is the fact that Rhiana Griffith was willing to reprise the role - and Vin Diesel apparently wanted her, but was told by executives she needed to "toughen up" for the role. And when she was busy doing so, they hired Davalos anyway. Few months before the production actually started. Fandom is still pissed about it.
• Star-Derailing Role: While the entire cast suffered some minor setbacks, Thandiwe Newton barely recovered from this movie... after which she took part in Norbit and virtually ceased to exist as a high-profile actress. Until...
• What Could Have Been:
  • Numerous Sequels for Pitch Black floated around for a while. The original script involved Riddick fighting the Hammerheaded Creatures in the underground of a city called "New Morocco" for entertainment. He is captured by a Merc named 'Big Foe' (who turns out, in the third act, to be Jack from Pitch Black) and brought back to the planet only to find that the creatures were sentient and wanted revenge on Riddick as dictated by the God of Evil they worshipped. Akiva Goldsman's script was about Riddick and Kyra (Jack) hijacking a prison satellite and landing it on a living planet, which launched various creatures made from elements such as air, fire, wind and water at them to try and stop them before trying to kill them with a giant storm.
  • In addition, the sequel we got could've been directed by Guillermo del Toro or David Cronenberg, with rumors of Alex Proyas, John Landis and Peter Jackson. Whether or not these sequels would have been better depends on whom you ask.

---