“It’s the concept of a planet that comes alive in the dark and becomes even more inhospitable than it already is.
I thought, ‘I could have a lot of fun with this’”
David Twohy |
 | | Director David Twohy on location in Coober Pedy |
Diesel’s character Riddick appears to be anything but the stuff of heroes. He is a convicted murderer who is being shipped to a prison planet when the craft goes down, and at first he seems to pose as much of a threat to the surviving crew members as the creatures who come out after dark.
But, says Diesel, “he is not the person we expect him to be when we first meet him”. For one thing, he has enhanced night vision - a skill which becomes critically important on the barren planet. For another, his guilt is by no means certain.
“When I first read the script,” says the actor, “the character jumped right off the pages at me. He was one of the best characters I’d come across in a long time. Anyone who has ever been judged harshly will relate to Riddick.”
Mitchell with Lewis Fitz-Gerald, who plays Paris.
|
“When I first read the script,” says the actor, “the character jumped right off the pages at me. He was one of the best characters I’d come across in a long time. Anyone who has ever been judged harshly will relate to Riddick.”
Among those who are initially very much guided by outward appearances are Pitch Black’s Ripley character, the (female) docking pilot Fry, who is the most senior crew member to survive the crash and who thus takes command on the new planet. It is a role played (as an American) by Australian actress Radha Mitchell, whose appearances in such indie features as Sundance favourite High Art and Cannes contender Love and Other Catastrophes has identified her as an artist to watch closely in future.
Keith David, Rhiana Griffith, Mitchell and Diesel as the survivors. |
Mitchell is an avowed sci-fi fan, which is one of the things that first drew her to the project. But the other was the role she was offered. “Fry is a very interesting character,” she says. “The emotional range she goes through is quite intense and that, for me, was the challenge. She is the de facto leader of the group, because she is the highest-ranking officer to survive the crash. At the same time, she’s overwhelmed. I had to tread a very thin line.”
|
