It’s likely that we’ll never again see actor Vin Diesel as futuristic anti-hero Richard B. Riddick on the big screen, but the character is far from dead. Atari announced that it is developing The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, a first-person shooter to debut in the spring of 2009. The title is being produced in conjunction with Universal Pictures Digital Platforms Group, Diesel’s Tigon Studios and acclaimed developer Starbreeze Studios for Xbox 360, PlayStation3 and Windows PC.
A re-imagining of the 2004 game The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, Assault on Dark Athena will offer a new, full-length campaign for a whole new audience, and an entirely new chapter in the Riddick saga featuring online multiplayer combat. The game casts the player as Riddick, who must use stealth and brawn to overcome the merciless crew of the predatory Merc-ship Dark Athena, which awaits its prey in the dark reaches of space.
The Riddick character was introduced in the cult-favorite 2000 sci-fi flick Pitch Black and returned in Universal’s The Chronicles of Riddick, which spawned a 30-minute direct-to-DVD animated movie directed by Peter Chung (Aeon Flux). Diesel reprised the role for the toon, and is also lending his voice to the title character in BET Animation’s upcoming animated series Hannibal the Conqueror.
