Still, the actor was intent on ensuring the story of Riddick would continue, even if he had to fund the project on his own instead of relying on Universal. Diesel’s production company, One Race Films, was a casualty of “The Chronicles of Riddick” bomb and lacked the finances. As a result, Diesel individually funded the project himself, diverting his mortgage payments into production costs. He discussed how stressful this high-stakes situation was in the Los Angeles Times:
“I will never be able to convey the anxiety, the frustration, the fear that I was feeling before making this movie when the funding wasn’t getting to where it needed to get. To where padlocks were being put on the production studio in Canada because we had insufficient funds to get going. To where I had to leverage my house.”
This financial maneuvering was all for naught, however, as Universal wouldn’t let Diesel even touch the “Riddick” franchise even after he offered the studio $10 million for creative control. He lamented in the same “LA Times” article:
“At that time, I felt like ‘Riddick’ was held in a vault. We weren’t allowed to be creative with that project we had already fallen in love with. They said, ‘We couldn’t bear the idea of this movie being successful somewhere else. So the answer is no.’ “
Source : https://www.slashfilm.com/958471/how-a-fast-furious-cameo-earned-vin-diesel-the-rights-to-riddick/
