An interview with Donnie Darko director, Richard Kelly
Beware of serious plot spoilers ahead:

Mad genius- or mere mortal? That's the question I kept asking myself on my way to talk with Richard Kelly, director of the upcoming Donnie Darko: Directors Cut (review #1, review #2), which hits select theaters on July 23rd. As I drove 5 mph through heavy traffic, I had no idea that I might never get to find out...

Knowing that I will only get a few minutes with the brainchild of one of the greatest sci-fi films ever made, I sat there thinking of the thousands of questions I had and tried to figure out which ones were the most important to ask. Little did I know I was on my way to the wrong freaking building! I get inside with only 5 minutes to spare and am trying to find a damn place to park. I fill a meter up and finally run in. I know where I am, and yet, there's no one there, only construction workers and painters. I'm asking everyone if I'm in the right place- no one speaks English and I'm totally freaking out- am I going to miss this opportunity of a lifetime? I start calling EVERYONE I know trying to find someone by a computer who could look up the address, 15 minutes later I finally find someone by a computer. Turns out the address where the screening took place and where Kelly would be interviewing had very similar numbers, so I thought I knew where I was going- but really I didn't. So I'm driving like an idiot through heavy traffic and I get there only 15 minutes late and find out I only missed one question- thank god!

I walked into the room and I couldn't believe my eyes, I knew he was young- but he looked like he might have been 23 when he made Donnie Darko. After I shook off the look on my face, I sat down and hammered out my first question, which I've been DYING to know for years- what in gods name opened the Tangent Universe? Richard Kelly's response made total sense, but made me feel a bit foolish for over thinking everything, as I'm sure thousands of other fans did. Basically he explained that he didn't even know who opened the Tangent Universe, but explained that the best possible guess is, "For me the most logical conclusion is that youre going to say that man opened it, something man developed in the distant future” He continues, "it's the result of someone in the distant future who found out how to break the space time continuum." Basically the Tangent Universe is opened because someone in the future time traveled and screwed things up and Donnie was the one chosen to close it.

I responded to this by asking if the world really ends, or is that just some sort of hypothetical future? Explaining the scene when Donnie dies, "Two ways, he's convinced its all a dream, or he experience something or made contact with something so far beyond anything were capable of understand, that the knowledge of that makes it so he realizes he can't live anymore- he either doesnt want to or doesnt need to- that his death is necessary for it all or that there is a reward for him for what he's accomplished." He continues, "It's meant to be upsetting and disturbing how he dies, but to me it was always necessary to the story that he not live and not survive it." He continues to explain that he tried to "tie it into the archetype of self sacrifice or a martyr of some sort." The movie is very complex and has many ties to religion and science.

The next question shifted the conversation back to the directors cut where Kelly explained the differences between the two movies, and pointed out that there is now a lot more character development in the family. He also talked about how he wrote the book that is used as Roberta Sparrow's book in the movie. He really wanted to "complete Drew Barrymore's character arc." He also says, "Roberta Sparrow and the time travel book, I felt like all these characters were obsessing over this book and the audience is never given access to what is inside of it. It was always an organic part of the story and I had written the book as I was editing the film as a way to complete the story in my mind." He added all these elements because he felt that's what was needed to complete the film.

Basically the next question asked if the film is supposed to make complete sense, since so many time travel movies don't? "I was always trying to tell a science fiction film, clearly its also this comic book satire and hopefully a fable arguable about suburban life in the Regean Era and the science fiction stuff was always there for thematic purposes. I was always designing the story also to work as a big elaborate science fiction story with an inherent logic to it, but logic only takes you so far in this." He explains that time travel you always "hit a wall" with and things can't always make complete sense- but he tried his best. He compares 12 Monkeys, Terminator and Back to the Future and points out that there is always this one paradox that drives people crazy. He does say that there has always been a design there- in both versions, even though you see less in the first. He still thinks ultimately that even if he made another version, with more footage, there will still be just as many questions...

When the talk of the new FX in the Directors Cut came up, I didn't expect the conversation to go even deeper- but it did! In reference to the "eye" sequences Kelly explains, "you can look at those as being literal, maybe thats real technology from somewhere- that's a machine that is existing and working... or perhaps it's just Donnie imagining and projecting the de ex Machina. He then goes into how he was always inspired by Watership Down, where this rabbit has this premonition of blood on the field- basically a big bulldozer is going to come and ruin everything. As he was writing Darko, he kept that in mind. "Basically it's the same story- there's a big bulldozen coming to take Middlesex out like a bulldozer in the sky. Now wee have to figure out a way out. This kid somehow is doing all this fucked up shit and all the teachers and the parents and the kids realize he has figured something out and they are being manipulated to kind of get this engine realigned somehow."

He then explains how that is why Franks outfit is a rabbit. He also says that all these other coincidences like 1988 being the year of the rabbit was not planned. He continues, "there is something about rabbits and how they are the most innocent fragile creatures- they dont hurt anyone, theyre nymphomaniacs- they represent everything thats pure and loving and peaceful... I'm starting to sound like Donnie in that scene."

Then another great question came up, why the name Donnie Darko? "I wanted there to be an archetype- it felt like a sci-fi comic book. I felt like I was trying to write this great comic book page turner with this mystery- where the visual effects would be the comic book panels kind of. I wanted to have the character to have a real defining name that was kind of funny and ridiculous." I asked if that's why Gretchen points it out in the movie and he said he needed to point it out, so it was know there was a reason for the name, and that he knew it was ridiculous.

Someone asked a question about Cats Cradle and he said he has written an adaptation and that a script is there, but he'd much rather call it Ice Nine if it's ever made because it is an adaptation. He looks at the book as an inadaptable novel, which is why it wouldnt be fair to call it Cats Cradle. He is working on it thought with Leonardo DiCaprio and his company and would like to direct it.

Next up is Southland Tales in September, which he already started shooting this summer. "It's a big epic film- a comedy, I wanted to do something as far different as Donnie Darko as possible. I feel like Ive been talking about this film for so long and Im happy to do it, but at the same time I really want to make something else that its going on the total end of the spectrum of the conversation." So I asked does this mean that Knowing, the time capsule film will be put on the back burner? He said, "it's another one I spent a year on and it was ready to go." But there were financial problems and its caused problems, but he really wants to direct the film, even though he did not write the script. They might not want to wait for him, but he wants to do it. He says the ending is tricky and thats the hard part. "Ultimately it wasn't meant to be the second film I do, because maybe it was a bit to thematically like Darko and maybe I would have been accused of just trying to repeat myself a little too much. That's one thing I dont want to do in my career- I want to try and do something completely different in each film. But I also just want to make a lot of comedies. I think that is the most fun and most satisfying if you can make people laugh."

He finished the interview by reiterating what we reported here months ago about the the Box, which is an adaptation of Button, Button, which was a Twilight Zone episode. Click here for more on that from his partner on The Box, Eli Roth.

You can check out the Donnie Darko: Director's Cut in select theaters July 23rd- I highly recommend you don't miss out- it's totally different from the DVD version and one of the greatest films ever assembled.