Back in 2000, Vin Diesel was mostly unknown. Sure, he had an excellent role in Saving Private Ryan as the kindhearted but doomed soldier pinned down by sniper fire, but otherwise, he was pretty obscure. That changed when Pitch Black, a mediumbudget scifi action film, hit theatres and, against all odds, turned into a decentsized hit. The movie, which David Twohy directed, gave Diesel a tailormade role as the antihero convict Riddick and offered early parts to Cole Hauser and Radha Mitchell.

Interestingly, Universal Pictures was ready to send this movie directly to video were it not for the fact that early fansites, such as Ain’t It Cool News, championed the movie following early screenings. The online buzz assured the film a solid opening via the nowdefunct USA Pictures, and once Diesel became a star, the studio gave him a tentpolesized followup, The Chronicles of Riddick. While that movie was a bomb, it did well enough that a smaller sequel, Riddick, was ordered. Indeed, the character has managed to eke out a profitable franchise for the studio and, notably, had this movie never happened, it's unlikely we would have ever gotten the Fast & Furious phenomenon.

In this episode of WTF Happened to this Movie, which is written and narrated by Dave Davis and edited by Juan Jimenez, we take a look at the making of this future cult classic and examine how it put Vin Diesel on the path to stardom.

Do you think Pitch Black holds up? Let us know in the comments.

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