The premise is simple: A marooned group of space travelers scour a desolate planet for signs of life, only to spend the bulk of their screen time running from the creatures they encounter. The budget is minuscule: Despite its CGI-heavy elements and otherworldly storyline, the film rang up at a comparatively low $25 million. The cast is composed of relative unknowns, the director's last film starred Charlie Sheen, and the script was written by the guys responsible for that Ewok TV-movie. So how did Pitch Black -- opening nationwide February 18 -- become the first great sci-fi film of the new millennium?

"The fact that the characters actually evolve, they have character arcs -- you don't see that much in a genre picture," responds director David Twohy as to what makes his movie stand out from the genre glut of late. "There's a lot of things that this genre doesn't even try for; they're quite content to have characters react instead of expand or evolve. But it's how you choose to have the characters interact with each other, and I think that that is different and exceptional in this film. I'm a pretty average moviegoer, and when I go to the movies I want to be entertained, and for me that means surprised. I don't want to see anything predictable."

Neither, as it turns out, do audiences. Following a year of landmark sci-fi duds (anyone remember Virus, Wing Commander, The Thirteenth Floor, or The Astronaut's Wife?) and two big-budget hits (The Matrix, The Phantom Menace), the arrival of Pitch Black this winter marks a welcome return to low-budget genre material that emphasizes human emotion over special FX. Well, sort of. "I'm really presenting a character drama at the heart of it," explains Twohy, before adding, "With monsters. In the dark."

Twohy is no stranger to genre filmmaking; after penning the first installment of the Warlock series and the acclaimed thriller The Fugitive, he went on to direct the 1996 sci-fi film The Arrival. "I would love to come back to it every other film," he says of science fiction. Newer to the genre are many of the film's talented cast, which includes Australian actress Radha Mitchell (High Art) and indie actor Cole Hauser (The Hi-Lo Country, Good Will Hunting), as well as veteran actor Keith David (The Thing, They Live, Armageddon).

The true breakout star of Pitch Black, however, is actor Vin Diesel, whose charismatic performance as escaped criminal Riddick steals the film's every scene. "This character, Riddick, is seemingly this huge, menacing, nefarious, formidable character that is heartless and lacks empathy," Diesel says in the low, sonorous voice that has entranced much of the 11th Hour staff. "We find through this experience that he changes. I like that. I like characters that shine in that moment of darkness, that rise to the occasion. I like the underdog that has been counted out and comes in at the last moment to save the day."

Having played characters ranging from Saving Private Ryan's Private Caparzo to the unmodulated voice of the Iron Giant in the film by the same name ("I wouldn't be able to talk for like two hours later," he says of the role), Diesel's screen presence is undeniable. The actor is also the writer and director of two films, one of which, Strays, debuted at the 1997 Sundance film festival. "By directing my own films, especially low-budget films, when you have no money and no resources, you rely solely on the performances and you have to exhaust that part of the filmmaking," he says. "That's something that I guess warranted putting every single thing that I had into it."

Diesel's latest directorial project is entitled Doormen, a film based on his own experiences as a New York City bouncer. It isn't long before the subject matter leads to discussion of one of Pitch Black's most noteworthy features. "I worked out in the same way I've been training all my life," explains the man who spends much of the film displaying the impressive results of said training. "Weightlifting, boxing, stuff like that. But because the character has an agility and dexterity about him, I took up pilates and yoga and meditated much more, and kind of set the character in a panther-like, cobra-like movement." Yeah, keep talking...

"So this character has that kind of agility and strikes very fast, but remains very composed," Diesel continues. "That was a different training than I normally do. Hopefully that affected the character -- you don't want him to be able to do those jointed things and not be able to carry that kind of agility throughout the rest of the film. That's the idea, I think." Almost as impressive as Diesel's body of work is the dedication he and the other Pitch Black cast members lent to their roles.

"Me and Vin kinda challenged each other," explains actor Cole Hauser, who plays ship officer -- and Riddick's captor -- Johns. "We really wanted to make the best film that we could. When I first met him, I think he saw how serious I was and I saw how serious he was, and we were just constantly working to make it even better than what's on the page. Let's give it a little bit of history, let's improvise this bit here, you know what I mean?" Aside from a preliminary two-week rehearsal, the actors, together with co-star Mitchell, would spend up to three extra hours per day further exploring their characters. "We had fun together," Hauser adds with a smile. "I helped him, I think. It was good."