Vin Diesel shares a few deep-voiced words with Liz Howell about The Chronicles Of Riddick, and reveals his passion for York's own Judi Dench.

PITCH Black hardly set the box office alight when it hit the big screens four years ago. But the overwhelming, and somewhat surprising, success of its DVD release turned this modest science fiction thriller into a cult classic and catapulted the big, bald, butch Vin Diesel towards superstardom.

So much so that he found himself in the lead roles of three possible franchises, but chose to pass on The Fast And The Furious and xXx sequels in order to recreate his Pitch Black character in The Chronicles Of Riddick.

"I never was too keen on doing a sequel in a reactionary way, just because a movie was financially a hit," says the deep-voiced Vin.

"Not a whole lot of people saw Pitch Black in the theatre. I guess I just gravitated towards the Riddick character and the possibilities of the universe, more so than just revisiting a franchise because it was financially successful."

Riddick is definitely not your average hero; the only person he's interested in saving is himself - and if he has to kill you to do it, then it's so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodnight, and no hint of a smile. Why should he care who's in charge of the universe, as long as whoever it is leaves him alone?

Such a character gives plenty of scope for Vin to use his 'scary' face.

"I had a lot of time to perfect that in my years of bouncing!" he says with a laugh, turning from scary into pussycat. "So many years, so many nights, you can perfect that face that says 'I'll kill you' - especially in New York City.

"I can really relate to Riddick's defiance. I've always had a problem with authority. He's a guy that embraces indifference and wants to be left alone."

Like Riddick, Vin admits to being a loner. He is rarely seen with a partner and insists he is not interested in the glitz and glamour of the movie business.

"If it were up to me I wouldn't do the film premiere thing at all," he says. "I want audiences to experience my character on screen as much as possible without me bringing any of my personal stuff to anyone's mind. I've tried to stay away from that."

To prove further that he's a bit of a softy in real life, his favourite scene in the movie is when he pets a dog. OK, the dog in question is a huge man-eating brute - computer generated of course, but nevertheless.

"It took me back to petting my own dog," he says. "I have a 165lb Cane Corso and I remember working out that scene and we were deciding how Riddick would pet this huge hellhound. These big animals don't like it if you just softly caress them, they want to know that you're there, they want you to hit them hard.

" So, when I saw the special effects all come together and I'm petting this hellhound, I went 'yeah!'" says Vin in a surprisingly high-pitched squeal, and clapping his hands with glee.

Another aspect of the movie which gave him even more pleasure was the casting of York's own Dame Judi Dench as a mysterious, amorphous ambassador from a rarefied race.

"Going from this very contained story, with Pitch Black, that lived in the sci-fi horror world and into an epic sci-fi fantasy/myth, with Riddick, we needed a character that very quickly could explain the mythology. Who more credible than Judi Dench? She was, in my mind, the most important component in casting.

"As an actor I can tell you that anyone in the world is going to want to work on a film that Judi Dench is in. Once we cast her, everybody wanted to work on this film - we could have gotten Laurence Olivier at that point, provided..."

He hadn't been dead for 15 years?

"Yeah, thank you, Just a minor technicality!" he says with another laugh.

"But she was so amazing, so wonderful. For years people would ask me who I wanted to work with and they would expect me to say an A list actor or an A list director and I'd say Judi Dench. And of course then they would say well what would you guys do together?"

So a theatre role might be in the offing one day? "I would jump at it - as long as it wasn't Caliban."

As for Judi Dench, she "was magical, she was like my fairy godmother - nothing could go wrong, every scene was in the safest of hands. At the end of the first day, the still photographer came to my trailer with an 8 x 10 and I immediately sent it off to my mother and I said if nothing else, my dream has already come true, I did it, I did a scene with Judi Dench".

So, will there be more adventures for Riddick in the future? "The concept behind switching genres was to create a story that you could continue exploring. This movie has a very daring ending because it's left open ended and you don't know where Riddick will go in the next movie."

And in the meantime?

"Hannibal The Conqueror!" says Vin, getting all excited again. "I started elephant training two years ago."

Don't laugh, he means it.

"If you don't know, he was a Carthaginian general 200 years before the birth of Christ and his city, Carthage, was destroyed in the first documented account of genocide - razed to the ground - I'll go on for ever, so stop me!"

OK Vin, but not before you tell us about your future dreams. Although Vin might portray tough guys on screen, deep down there is a song-and-dance man dying to burst through.

"I'd love to do a musical, a remake of Guys And Dolls," he says wistfully.

"And if Judi Dench asked me to appear on stage with her? Wow! I would jump at it. That would be unbelievable."

PROFILE:

Real name: Mark Vincent

Birthdate: July 18, 1967

Significant other: Rumoured to have dated Mariah Carey. Now single

Career high: Zooming into the multi-million dollar bracket with The Fast And The Furious

Career low: Flexing his muscles as a bouncer at New York nightclubs.

Famous for: Having the deepest voice in Hollywood.

Words of wisdom: "I may not be that smart. I may not be that good-looking. But cool? Yes. Very cool."

Updated: 15:40 Thursday, August 26, 2004