I enjoyed David Twohy’s The Chronicles of Riddick a fair bit when I first saw it last summer (originally reviewed HERE), but it’s one of those movies that’s really grown on me through repeat viewings.  Which makes it all the more discouraging that, outside of a possible follow-up to the excellent videogame, we’re unlikely to get another Riddick adventure.

But Twohy is stepping on the accelerator and cruising right past the exit to the Underverse, instead kicking the tires on the sequel to the surprise hit The Italian Job.  That wasn’t necessarily the original plan – Twohy was pitching a heist flick titled The Wrecking Crew to Paramount, who instead wanted to rework the story into The Brazilian Job. It must be a little strange to have an exec listen to a pitch and say “I like it, but I’d like it more if it was a sequel to a remake.”  And then have to figure out a way to work Mini Coopers and Seth Green into it.  But I suppose a sale is a sale, right?  Besides, that’s pretty much what happened with the original script that became Ocean’s 12.

Director F. Gary Gray (who coincidentally directed Twohy’s intergalactic killer Vin Diesel in A Man Apart) still plans to climb back behind the wheel on the tenuous Italian Job franchise, bringing the whole crew to Rio for some theft, vehicular alacrity and possible debauchery. But Twohy has other stuff to keep him busy: he’s planning to direct a Nickelodeon flick he wrote called The Would-Be Warrior, about a teen caught up in a battle between Norse gods (I’m not sure if this means Time Bandit style century-jumping or if Odin and family are coming over for mead), and he’s developing The Break, a sci-fi prison escape flick that will not star Christopher Lambert.  I hope they all get treated better than Below.

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