Richard Kelly is a mad, crazy genius. I remember when they held the Donnie Darko premiere here in Richmond; I had a paper to write or something, and didn't go. Still kicking myself over that...

wren | June 06, 05:06 CET

Expanded the link title to make explicit the connection to Whedonesque.

SoddingNancyTribe | June 06, 06:02 CET

Wren, did Kelly actually show up in Richmond? I live in southwestern VA, ergo the interest.
DD is one of my favorite movies ever, I wish I waited for the Director's Cut though (I hate it when studios release an enhanced edition after I buy the original).
Kelly is one of the coolest young directors out there (dare i put him on the same pedastal as Aronofsky?), so this might be the third SMG movie I wind up watching.

rsfayez | June 06, 07:48 CET

rsfayez, if you hate rereleases, then you'll REALLY hate that they're doinga Donnie Darko Director's Cut re-rerelease in spiffy new packaging. It comes out in the next week or two.

thekey1313 | June 06, 08:03 CET

When I first saw DD I really felt like it would always be this little unknown gem, and now its really pretty huge (which it deserves to be). I'm really excited to see what else Kelly will bring us next, and to me its just a bonus that we have SMG in it. I still find it amazing that ultimately Kelly's lonliness is what partly made him this cult little director, rather than letting it just eat him up. Its always inspirational when you see creative people making something out of their emotions.

buffbuff | June 06, 10:58 CET

I'm actually really excited about this film. Can't wait.

Impossible | June 06, 18:26 CET

Dito.

Zoic_Fan | June 06, 18:44 CET

Kelly grew up in Midlothian, a village/suburb on the south side of Richmond (nice place; lotsa money). They held a "premiere" of some sort at a theater in Midlothian when the movie opened; I read several "local boy makes good" articles. I'm sure Kelly was there, but I don't know about any cast members. I've Googled to try to come up with photos, but so far have found none. The local alternative press were probably the only folks who showed up, and if they ever published any pics, I don't think anybody bothered to scan them and post online.

wren | June 06, 20:08 CET

Poor Sarah. It seems like she has had to lower her fees for every movie she's done recently ! :-) Of course, that must mean that she's doing fine.
And ditto to Impossible and Zoic's posts.

WWBD | June 06, 21:48 CET

I think it is this kind of role that will give SMG a higher profile. Obviously Donnie Dark wasn't desgined as a massively commerical, mainstream film, but it became popular through word of mouth. I predict that Southland Tales will be similarly made, and offer SMG a chance to show off her acting rather than Scooby Doo. I really think she is a fantastic actress and will be able to show this to even more people through her film career, whereas the Buffy audience was relatively small. Eventually she'll be able to pick and choose between big budget, epic films and smaller, smart indie films.

Razor | June 07, 04:19 CET

I think she's probably got quite a bit of choice at the moment (it's amazing how 'in demand' actors are after one success since Hollywood is always on the lookout for 'the next big thing'). But I think she's already chosen to do films with small to medium budgets for the time being, as long as they involve people that she admires. Asif Kapadia, Richard Kelly etc. I think it's a good decision on her part.

Impossible | June 07, 14:45 CET