LATEST NEWS

TV Star Katee Sackhoff Lands a Lead Role in the New 'Riddick' Movie

by Alex Billington
January 9, 2012
Source: Deadline

Time to bust out the Battlestar! Deadline is reporting that Katee Sackhoff is in final negotiations to star as the female lead in David Twohy's new Chronicles of Riddick sequel movie, still untitled, in the works at Universal. Sackhoff most recently has been working on A&E's "Longmire" and will finish that and move on to shoot Riddick next. This news picks up on the new R-rated Riddick sequel after they halted production for two months due to "financing issues"; production will now start up again in Montreal. Vin Diesel is back as Riddick and Sackhoff will play Dahl, a Nordic mercenary tracking him in this. Glad it's back on track!

While we still need a title, here's what it's about: Betrayed by his own kind and left for dead on a desolate planet, Riddick fights for survival against alien predators and becomes more powerful and dangerous than ever before. Soon bounty hunters from throughout the galaxy descend on Riddick only to find themselves pawns in his greater scheme for revenge. That's the supposed plot for this new Riddick movie, and it sounds like Sackhoff will play one of the mercs after him. It's a bit odd that she's joining this late into production, but we don't know much about the supporting cast, so it sounds like it's just now coming together anyway.

Update: In addition to Sackhoff, Variety also adds that Jordi Molla (seen in Bad Boys II, Inconceivable, Knight and Day, Bunraku, Colombiana) is joining Riddick as the villain, named Santana. Like Sackhoff, he's a mercenary who heads up an eight-man crew tasked with finding and killing him. He's the next to join.

Sackhoff has been in a few films before, including Halloween: Resurrection and White Noise 2: The Light; however most of her work is on TV, where she was in NBC's "Bionic Woman", Sci-FI's "Battlestar Galactica" as Starbuck, the final season of "24", and a few episodes of "CSI" recently. It's good to see her landing a solid lead like this, but there's no guarantee this film will launch her into Hollywood or anything. Or if it will even turn out any good. But I'm hoping for the best from Twohy, taking it back to his roots, delivering a budget-trimmed sci-fi flick that recalls Pitch Black more than Chronicles of Riddick. That's what I'm hoping to see.

Filed under Casting, Hype, Movie News, Opinions

From around the web: