Pitch Black (2000)
- Many of the practical effects used in the climax were achieved without any CGI.
- Before Vin Diesel was cast, several major A-list stars turned down the lead role because they felt the script was too risky.
- David Twohy originally wanted a completely different ending for the film, but test audiences preferred the one we see today.
Pitch Black is a 2000 American science fiction horror film directed by David Twohy. Vin Diesel stars as Richard B. Riddick, a dangerous convict with surgically enhanced eyes that allow him to see in total darkness, who is being transported by a bounty hunter when their spacecraft crashes on a desert planet with three suns.
When the survivors discover the planet is inhabited by photosensitive predatory creatures that emerge only in darkness, and that a rare total eclipse is approaching that will plunge the planet into complete blackness, Riddick's night vision becomes the group's only chance of survival. Pitch Black was a lean, effectively terrifying survival horror that established Vin Diesel as a star through a role that required him to be simultaneously threatening and heroic. The moral calculus of trusting a convicted murderer because he's the only one who can see in the dark gave the film genuine tension beyond the creature horror.
Pitch Black earned $53 million worldwide on a $23 million budget and launched the Riddick franchise.
