Richard Kelly, the writer and director of regarded as a cult classic.
Donnie Darko is centered around a teenager named Donnie, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, who is haunted by visions of a demonic rabbit called Frank who warns him of an impending doomsday. Frank guides Donnie to commit various crimes, and a psychiatrist diagnoses him with paranoid schizophrenia. As Donnie’s crimes escalate, the predictions of Frank seem to unfold, though the film is notorious for its complex narrative and confusing ending. Christopher Nolan recently took credit for helping Donnie Darko make more sense. A 2009 film, S. Darko, was about Donnie’s little sister, who finds herself trapped in a time-space continuum glitch. The project was made without any involvement of Kelly or Gyllenhaal and it was a critical failure, with a 13% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
In a recent interview with ComingSoon.net, Kelly commented on the possible follow-up to Donnie Darko. He responds to a question about the development of another story set in the same universe, meaning that it could potentially be an entirely different narrative, rather than some kind of reboot or continuation with the same character. Kelly insists that while he unfortunately can’t talk about specifics, there has been a substantial amount of progress with the concept. Kelly said:
“Well, I’m probably not allowed to say anything more than there has been an enormous amount of work completed. I’m hopeful that we might get to explore that world in a very big and exciting way. But we’ll see what happens. But there has been a lot of work done. A lot of work has been done.”
Donnie Darko was one of Gyllenhaal’s first film credits at the age of 20 and is still considered one of his best performances. The film is widely considered to represent his breakthrough moment and Gyllenhaal himself credits the film with changing his life and career. He recently celebrated the film’s 20th anniversary by sharing images of his original script, complete with notes and other interesting artifacts.
Considering how popular the film has become in the past two decades, it’s not surprising that Kelly has to keep quiet about a potential follow-up. Though he can’t make any specific comments about it, his response does seem promising for fans of the film, as it indicates that something is indeed in the works. Given how long Donnie Darko has remained popular, it’s surprising that the film is one of only five directing credits for Kelly. Fans would certainly love to see more of the troubled teenager and, with Kelly attached, a follow-up film surely would not disappoint.
Source: ComingSoon.net
