Harry here with some information and a pic that a fella sent in that just has me asking, "Where did this project come from?" Sheesh, this looks and sounds pretty cool. It's directed by David Twohy, who I felt did a fantastic job with THE ARRIVAL, which is a pretty damn cool movie. I love the Harryhausen feel of the aliens. Well I'm not sure what this spy wants me to call him, so I'll just post the info. (yes I do recognize that it reads like press agent copy. But I haven't seen ANY of this info anywhere else so it's all for you to digest. Enjoy)There are MANY SPOILERS BELOW!!!!
Marooned space-travelers struggle for survival on seemingly lifeless sun-scorched world. But when a titanic eclipse throws the planet into darkness, the world erupts with nocturnal life - and now the real battle begins...
Cast: Radha Mitchell Vin Diesel (Saving Private Ryan) Cole Hauser (Good Will Hunting)
Director: David Twohy
Producer: Tom Engelman
Exec. Producers: Ted Field, Scott Kroopf
Screenplay: David Twohy
CAROLYN FRY is a junior space pilot on the crew of a craft traveling to a far away galaxy known as New Mecca. Among the passengers, JOHNS is a good looking cop who brings RIDDICK, a deadly killer, to justice. Riddick's eyes have been enhanced for vision on a low light planet, making him virtually blind in the brightness of day.
When the spacecraft becomes crippled in space, Carolyn fails to pilot a safe landing on an inhabited planet. She is the only member of the crew to survive. Johns and Riddick, in the relative safety of the passenger compartment, are unharmed. These three characters form an uneasy alliance in the quest to survive. Under their leadership are a handful of other passengers: three CHRISLAM PILGRIMS, whose religion is a combination of Christian and Muslim scripture; AUDREY, a teenage runaway; ZEKE and SHAZZA, husband and wife biologists who study extraterrestrial life forms; and PARIS, effete, self-interested antique dealer whose belongings include an abundance of vintage liquor.
On the eerie planet, scorched perpetual sunlight, the survivors find a landscape dotted with huge, dry cone-shaped hills and petrified, vine-like croppings. But no life. Then they find and abandoned settlement. Whoever they were, the settlers left in a hurry. Why? Among the belongings left at the camp is a light duty spacecraft that could be their chance for survival.
Then Riddick, digging a grave for the dead crew members, finds a tunnel full of bones. Zeke investigates the hole and a strange, foreboding clicking that comes from within. Zeke is yanked into the shadows. His anguished screams echo throughout the settlement. When Fry follows his trail in the dark cave, all she finds are Zeke's eviscerated remains. Suddenly, something unseen comes after her. She barely escapes into the daylight, where whatever is lurking in the dark does not follow.
The creatures which almost got Fry, killed Zeke and the settlers who came before them.
Fry and Riddick further realize that the planet is not perpetually in light - it's on an orbit that puts it in total darkness every sixty years. The last time darkness fell the settlers were destroyed. And as the suns set now, Riddick warns Fry that she'd better know exactly whom she can trust. Because Johns isn't all he seems to be. And Riddick might be more than she imagines.
It turns out that Johns is, in fact, a bounty hunter, and he's been hiding a morphine habit. Although he's promised Riddick his freedom, he had no intention of keeping his word. Fry can't trust either one of them. But as dusk begins to fall on this hostile world, dread unites all of the survivors. Whatever is lurking in the dark has been there a long time, hungrily waiting for this moment.
As night falls, the tree-like vines come alive, turning out to be the spines of hibernating beasts called PLOWHEADS. These huge creatures become easy prey for winged HATCHLINGS, which fly from the spired hills like smoke from a volcano top. And the ominous clicking that preceded Zeke's death begins to build in intensity as grown CARNIVORES emerge. Hiding in the gloaming, they navigate their dark world with clicking echo-location, searching with saber-bladed precision for sustenance after their sixty year fast.
