Trivia for
Pitch Black (2000) More at IMDbPro »

• The spaceship is called Hunter/Gratzner - also the name of the visual effects company that designed and built the actual model of the ship.
  
  
• Desert scenes filmed in the same location used for Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
  
  
• In one of the shots showing cargo pods being jettisoned from the ship before the crash, one of the pods is numbered '2E', a jokey reference to the director's name ('Twohy') from the effects crew.
  
  
• The contacts that Vin Diesel wore to play Riddick were a prototype. After the first day of filming, when they tried to remove the contact lenses, they couldn't. Due to where they were filming, they had to have an optometrist flown in from the nearest town, three hours away. Diesel called the contacts hubcaps.
  
  
• Vin Diesel actually performed the shoulder-dislocation stunt (when Riddick breaks free for the second time) for the crew, holding a chain between his hands, although he couldn't do it with the cuffs on. The version we see is mostly him with some special effects thrown in.
  
  
• The contact lenses Vin Diesel wore in the movie, while a prototype during production, were briefly available to the public from Lens Quest following the release of the film. They were called Shine Job, like in the movie.
  
  
• When the crew is brought out of stasis by the computer, the shot of 'Simon Burke', being ejected from the stasis chamber is actually a shot of Cole Hauser being "kicked" from the chamber. There was no shot of the character Owens being "kicked" from the chamber. This can be seen in slow motion.
  
  
• The hot desert where they filmed was actually about 50F. They were misting water on the actors to make it appear as if they were sweating.
  
  
• Had a 60 days shooting schedule.
  
  
• Vin Diesel said that while shooting the scenes where his character was in a suspended animation chamber, he had a claustrophobia attack at one point during shooting and had to be taken out of the chamber.
  
  
• It was Cole Hauser's idea for Johns to shoot up the drugs into his eye.
  
  
• The weapon Johns uses is a SPAS 12, modified to look futuristic.
  
  
• When Riddick pulled the tarp off one of the buildings, revealing Jack, a tied rope was on the other side causing Vin Diesel to pull a muscle.
  
  

• SPOILER: The original ending had Riddick being killed by one of the creatures instead of Carolyn. This was changed to allow sequel possibilities since Universal didn't believe the Carolyn character would be as popular as the Riddick character.
  
  

Related Links