"Pitch Black" TV show on Sci-Fi Channel


 Sci Fi Channel Moves Ahead at Warp Speed
 Tue Apr 6, 1:34 AM ET  Add Entertainment - Reuters TV to My Yahoo!
 By Kathleen Anderson
 NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - A host of new series, movies and the return of the popular "Farscape: Peacekeeper War" miniseries took the spotlight at Sci Fi Channel's presentation to advertisers Monday.
 Now billing itself the "imagination" channel with the aim of picking up younger viewers, Sci Fi said it produces an average of 22 original movies a year, more than any TV network.
 "Battlestar Galactica," which most recently aired in December, was the most-watched cable miniseries of 2003, Sci Fi said. It's being made into a weekly series to debut in January 2005, and network president Bonnie Hammer called it the "most expensive" show Sci Fi has ever done. Previous estimates cited production costs as high as $1.5 million per episode.
 Such projects are part of Sci Fi's rapidly rising spending threshold, which a company spokeswoman said is estimated at $150 million and $200 million this year -- four to five times greater than what it was just a few years ago.
 In addition to the return of the four-hour miniseries "Farscape," Sci Fi said other miniseries include "Earthsea," where Danny Glover (news) plays a wizard with sorcerer Shawn Ashmore (news). Kristin Kreuk (news) and Isabella Rossellini (news) star alongside them in the mystical fantasy.
 "The Dresden Files," based on Jim Butcher's novels about a detective with extraordinary powers, is a two-hour pilot movie produced by Nicolas Cage (news)'s company.
 "History of the Devil" will be a six-hour series dealing with the devil, who is trying to weasel his way back into heaven with the help of a New York defense attorney.
 Original series will include an untitled project characterized as "Sex and the City" meets an alien population in an urban drama about an eventual invasion of the city. Joel Schumacher will direct the series.
 Other new series include "Eureka," about a town full of geniuses in a government think tank, said Hammer, who called it a funny but smart "Northern Exposure" meets "The Twilight Zone."
 Two other series are in discussion and projected to close any day. "Kyra" and an untitled Ridley Scott (news) project. "Kyra," a spinoff of the 2000 film "Pitch Black," sees warrior Kyra join a band of mercenaries in a search for her mentor. Sci Fi said it is trying to close the deal with director-writer David Twohy and the film's star Vin Diesel (news), who will executive produce. And the untitled Scott project is a New York-set romance with wolflike creatures secretly living among normal city folks.
 Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

Interestingly, Variety claims this series will be a spin off of PB  and TCoR. Now it's not clear if it will take place before Kyra is grown or after the events of the first movie.  :confused:

Since Vin is supposed to be executive producer and he's trying to turn Riddick into a franchise, I'm sure he wouldn't  think  of letting anyone else play Riddick!  :grin: However, I expect Riddick will be seen in the series sparingly, if at all. Maybe in Kyra's flashbacks or dreams or something.

Ever see the movie "Hannibal"?  Remember when Clarice was in the train station looking for him but he was tailing her?  She couldn't find him because he had her in his scope. Wouldn't it be cool if the writers had Jack and Riddick in a constant situation like that?  
 There have been other "in search" of type shows and they never work out right.  The audience gets tired of waiting for the reunion and when the reunion finally happens the show dies.
 Giving the show the twist of Riddick being around but not really there would add a layer to the show that has never been dealt with before.  It would be like he is there in every shadow, around every corner, but he decides when to make himself known to the audience but never to Jack/Kyra.  He could open each episode with a "Pitch Black" style introduction.
 There are logical reasons why he would this.  Keeping Jack/Kyra with him could be dangerous for them both.  She might slow him down or he could get her hurt/killed during an dealing with mercs or cops.  He knows he has to leave her, but he also knows she'd look for him.  So to keep her safe from the danger he poses he'd stay away.  But to keep her safe from the big bad universe he'd stay close enough to keep an eye on her.  Heck, he could even leave his own clues as to where he was heading next.  
 Find ways to secretly teach ehr things by putting her in places where she can learn things.  Leave a clue that he's going to see an old friend.  Riddick asks the friend to teach Jack or watch out for her. She gets there and the friends claims she just missed him, but he did talk about her.  She hangs around has a little adventure then balls out.
 When things got really tough, he could show up save her and she would never really need to know.  Like if some stalker was hunting her or a merc. They would need a really good writer, but it could be done.  And this would be true to Riddick's nature.  Almost a weekly repeat of the first hour of "Pitch Black" when he stalked the group learning their habits and such.
 Just a thought.


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