Riddick: Furya – the fourth film in the franchise starts shooting in August

Whenever Vin Diesel wants to get away from family and live more than a quarter mile at a time, he revisits his other franchises. Diesel, an unapologetic sci-fi nerd, has always had a soft spot for his space anti-hero character, Riddick. Diesel will be following up on the previous entries with the upcoming Riddick: Furya. Deadline has now reported that this entry has just set its production start date on August 26th. This comes just as director Louis Leterrer confirmed that the eleventh Fast & Furious movie will not begin production until next year, which leaves Diesel open.

The plot of Riddick: Furya reads,
“Riddick finally returns to his home world, a place he barely remembers and one he fears might be left in ruins. But there he finds other Furyans fighting for their existence against a new monster. And some of these Furyans are more like Riddick than he could have ever imagined.” Riddick: Furya will also reunite Diesel with the series’ writer and director, David Twohy.

Diesel will star and produce under his One Race Films banner alongside Samantha Vincent. Thorsten Schumacher for Rocket Science and Lars Sylvest for Thank You Studios will also produce alongside Joe Neurauter.

Rocket Science represented the international sales rights and has completed worldwide cornerstone pre-sales to the UK (yet to be announced), France (Metropolitan), Germany (Leonine), Spain and Latin America (Sun), Benelux (The Searchers), Poland (Kinoswiat), Canada (Elevation), Scandinavia (Scanbox), Portugal (Lusomundo), Switzerland (Ascot Elite), South Africa (Empire), Greece (Femeway), Middle East (Front Row), CIS and Baltic States (Volga), Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Czech/Slovak, Republic Former Yugoslavia (ProRom), and Thailand (Sahamongkhol). CAA Media Finance is representing the North American rights.

Diesel teased art on his Instagram to build hype for the fans of his franchise. Pitch Black was a 2000 film that featured the character as part of an ensemble as they battled alien creatures that live in the dark. That was followed by the epic The Chronicles of Riddick, which underperformed at the box office in 2004, so they reduced the scope for the third film, Riddick, which was released in 2013. The franchise also includes an animated short called The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury and three video games, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, and Riddick: The Merc Files.

Diesel and Twohy have also talked about wanting to make TV shows set in the world of Riddick. One would center on the character Kyra, who was featured in Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick, and the other would be called Merc City, as it would center on the mercenaries and bounty hunters of the franchise. These projects have never seemed to gain much traction, but maybe that will change if Riddick: Furya turns out to be a hit.