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Uneasy Start
Long before "Donnie Darko" ever had the chance to receive a Director's Cut and Kelly had to worry about raising tens of millions for another pic, the director and crew had a hell of a time just getting people interested in the film.
"At Sundance, all of these acquisitions executives were saying there's no audience for this movie. It's too intellectual for the teenage crowd, too pop for the art-house crowd. It's a mess...it's this...it's that. It was all very dismissive because it wasn't easily categorized. They just didn't want to give the film an audience. To have the audience come out of the woodwork and embrace it shows that nobody really knows anything."
Drew Barrymore, a "Darko" force both in front and behind the camera
Even after the film was warmly received by audiences at the festival, Kelly faced an uphill battle finding a distributor before the film was finally picked up by New Market.
"We had five months where each week that went by, another distributor passed. They were pretty much dropping like flies and we were concerned that the film was going straight to video. There was actually a deal pretty much in place to premier the film on the Starz Network. It was like...fuck..."
While the film's opening was something less than stellar, it was critically well received, and interest picked up steam as word spread about the film on campuses and art houses.
"This film needed to fail before it could succeed," says Kelly.
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"It's now become a success on its own merits. There are a lot of films that open really well that are just terrible. They promote the shit out of it, they give it a great trailer and the opening weekend is great. Sometimes there’s this mass audience hypnosis then there's a 60% drop-off after the first weekend. 'Donnie Darko' continues to grow an audience years later and I'm proud of that."
One-Hit Pressure
While Kelly has his directorial career on hold, he continues to write screenplays for some of the film industry's most recognizable names, including the upcoming "Domino" with "Top Gun" and "Enemy of the State" director Tony Scott. While the pairing might be surprising to some and downright disappointing for others, Kelly has nothing but praise for Scott and seems enthused about prospects for the film.
"It's going to be the most provocative thing he's ever done. It has that 'True Romance' feel to it, including some of the same financing. It's a low-budget film at $45 million. That's a low-budget Tony Scott film."
Other recent projects for Kelly include a take on Kurt Vonnegut's infamously challenging and surreal novel Cat's Cradle.
"I locked myself up for a week in the Hotel California to write it," says Kelly.
"I call it 'Ice 9' because it's really pretty loosely based on the book. If you've ever read the book, it's fairly difficult to translate. The film is owned by Leonardo DiCaprio's company and I'm not sure what they're gonna do with it. I don't think it's going to be made any time real soon."
Kelly's voice takes on a tone of anger and exasperation as he explains further his frustration at getting his own directorial projects underway.
"It's so tough. If I wanted to make another $4.5 million film, I could have done it by now. I need to move forward and have a bigger budget, a longer schedule and more bells and whistles. I need to advance.
It's frustrating and it's tough and I hope that the fact that the film is being re-released will help me get these other films off the ground. Taking three years to make a film is pretty depressing to me. It's not like I don't have the material. It's written – it's ready to go. I'm not stalling because I'm some one-hit wonder."
As he waits to become the next Wes Anderson or Paul Thomas Andersen, Kelly will continue to travel across the country promoting "Donnie Darko."
Jake Gyllenhaal as "Donnie Darko"
"I still think there's a lot of people out there who still haven't seen this film. I'm excited for the people who are seeing the director's cut as the first time they've seen it. I'm still excited to talk about the film and I'll continue to go out and talk about it until people tell me to shut the fuck up and go away."
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Written by Richard Sharp
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008: Richard Kelly
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