‘Riddick’ update features logo, poster, Karl Urban pic and Katee Sackhoff talking film

Over the last month there have been a few update on the new “Riddick” film due early 2013: logo, the first pic of Karl Urban and a few words from Katee Sachhoff.

David Twohy, the writer and director behind the upcoming third installment in the franchise starring Vin Diesel, provided followers of his blog with an update last month. (see photo below which reveals the “Riddick” logo in the background)

Feels like I’m back in production!

Been pulling 14-hour days trying to finish RIDDICK.  My typical day starts at 9am with intensive visual effects meetings, sweating out the details of our 900 VFX shots.  Then I jet across town to the mix stage, Soundelux, where I supervise the sound, balancing out the often-competing elements of music, sound fx, sound design, and dialog.  At night I hit the lab, Technicolor in Hollywood, staying until midnight to do “DI work” — color-correction of the movie.  This is where David Eggby and I have one last chance to get the images right, dropping in grads and power windows to finesse what we shot on set.  It’s a great tool, the Digital Intermediate.  Kind of like Photoshop for movies.  Gotta love it.  Gotta love the challenge of bringing it all home.

Shortly thereafter fans got a look at Karl Urban as Vaako. (more below)

Karl Urban as Vaako in “Riddick”

Katee Sackhoff, while promoting ActingOutlaws, talked with Collider about “Riddick”:

Was it fun to have the experience of making the Riddick film and working with Vin Diesel?

SACKHOFF:  Oh, my god, yeah!  It’s a dream come true.  I’ve been a fan of the Riddick series since Pitch Black, and I’m such a huge fan of Vin and (director) David Twohy.  When I got the job, I was jumping up and down and crying and screaming.  And then, the director said to me, “You do know there’s nudity, right?”  And I was like, “Shit!  I have to talk to my dad first.  I can’t take the role until I call my dad.  Let me call you right back.”  So, I called my dad.  I’ve always said that I’ll know when I’ve gone too far because I won’t be able to sit down and watch it with my father.  I am a daddy’s girl at heart, even though I’m in my 30s.  So, I told him about it and he said, “You know, I can handle that, but I don’t know if your brother will be okay.  It’s Vin Diesel.  Don’t say no to Vin Diesel.  Just go do the movie.”  So, I called David Twohy back and said, “My dad said I can take my clothes off.”  It was pretty funny, actually.

It’s been announced that it will have an R rating, but will it be a hard R?  Is there a lot of blood in it?

SACKHOFF:  There’s a shitload of blood and there’s little pieces of nudity, here and there.  There’s my nudity too, but it’s side boob, for three to five seconds.  It’s not that big of a deal.  It’s mostly for the language.  My character and Matt Nable’s character say fuck, like every other word.  It’s kind of fantastic, actually.  He must have said fuck 15 times, in every single scene.  It’s pretty awesome.  So, it’s mostly for language. 

What can you say about the character that you’re playing? 

SACKHOFF:  Her name is Dahl and she’s a Nordic bounty hunter.  She’s German.  It’s just fantastic!  There’s a scene where one of the characters screws with my character and I punch him in the face.  She’s really very short-tempered and she’s got a short fuse.  She’s funny.  She’s very, very, very good at her job.  She’s a sniper, and she’s the number two commanding officer, behind Matt Nable’s character, in our group of mercenaries.  She’s great!  Matt and I decided, from day one, after we met, that we were kindred spirits.  We got along really well.  We knew that we wanted to be standing next to each other, in every scene.  We went and told the D.P. about it and he was like, “I like it.  It works.”  That was cool!  I’m really excited about it.  It’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever had the privilege to be a part of.  It really is a dream come true.  It’s amazing!

Here’s the synopsis for Riddick:

The latest chapter of the groundbreaking saga that began with 2000′s hit sci-fi film Pitch Black and 2004′s The Chronicles of Riddick reunites writer/director David Twohy (A Perfect Getaway, The Fugitive) and star Vin Diesel (the Fast and Furious franchise, xXx). Diesel reprises his role as the antihero Riddick, a dangerous, escaped convict wanted by every bounty hunter in the known galaxy.

The infamous Riddick has been left for dead on a sun-scorched planet that appears to be lifeless. Soon, however, he finds himself fighting for survival against alien predators more lethal than any human he’s encountered. The only way off is for Riddick to activate an emergency beacon and alert mercenaries who rapidly descend to the planet in search of their bounty.

The first ship to arrive carries a new breed of merc, more lethal and violent, while the second is captained by a man whose pursuit of Riddick is more personal. With time running out and a storm on the horizon that no one could survive, his hunters won’t leave the planet without Riddick’s head as their trophy.