NEW YORK -- Post-Fast & Furious, the future looks brighter for Vin Diesel's anti-hero Riddick.

David Twohy, who directed Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick, confirms Diesel's newly restored box office clout -- Fast & Furious grossed $342 million worldwide -- may help get another Riddick outing off the ground.

"I've sketched out two stories and Vin and I have figured out which one we liked best," he says.

Whether the sequel actually happens is anyone's guess -- Hollywood is hyperbole, after all -- but Twohy suggests the pair would prefer to finance the sequel independently rather than seek a home at a studio that would demand, among other concessions, a PG-13 rating in the U.S.

"You start cutting back ... and it doesn't feel right for the series."

So if a third film does happen, it will be rated R and scaled back -- more in keeping with 2000's Pitch Black than 2005's big-budget box office disappointment.

"We probably spent too much on the second one," Twohy concedes. "It was probably too ambitious.... (But) if we were guilty of overreaching, it's probably not the greatest crime in the world."