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by Scott Juba Published: December 14, 2005  Copyright IFC Films. 2001.
“Essentially it combines all of those genres,” Kelly says of the film. “I hope it successfully does that. It’s essentially a big satire about the state of the world right now and where we’re going and where we could be in three years time. It takes place July 4, 2008. Ultimately, it’s sort of about the end of world.” For his second film, Kelly had the luxury of working with a bigger budget than he did on “Donnie Darko,” and he used the increased financial resources to give an epic feel to the movie. “[Southland Tales] is elaborate from a production standpoint in that it has a lot of action and stunts and a lot more visual effects and a lot more characters,” he says. “In terms of the scope of the project, it’s certainly bigger and more epic.” Kelly has spent several years working on “Southland Tales,” because he wants audiences to accept it as a suitable follow-up to “Donnie Darko.” “Getting the second film right or even getting it made is almost harder than the first one,” Kelly says. “If you did a good job or you were well received on your first one, you don’t want to have the sophomore curse or that sophomore slump…As long as people come out of this and they’re like, ‘Yeah, that was a solid follow-up,’ I’ll be like, ‘Okay, now I can just hopefully make one movie a year and move at a much faster pace.’ “ Kelly added, “It’s not like I was stalling or anything. This script was written three or four years ago. It’s such a weird movie, people didn’t want to role the dice on it. But actually all that wait made the movie better. It made me really develop the screenplay to a point where I think it’s really something. Had this movie gotten made a year ago, it wouldn’t have been as cool, and it wouldn’t have been as intricate, and it wouldn’t have had all the layers and the ideas. I’ve matured a lot.” A graduate of USC, Kelly credits much of his success to his film school education and recommends that aspiring filmmakers attend film school while they are young. “When you’re an undergrad, you’re a little bit more ballsy, because you’re in that delusional world of ‘Life’s a party.’ That’s when I went to film school. Had I gone to grad film school I think I would have been more reserved and conservative, and I wouldn’t have taken as many risks with my student films [and with] developing my writing process and my style,” he says. “I recommend going as an undergrad.” Kelly broke into the business when his producing partner passed Kelly’s script for “Donnie Darko” onto assistants at a few of the major talent agencies. “Luckily a guy at CAA really fell for it, and he gave it to his boss, Beth Swofford, and she happened to read it on weekend read,” Kelly explains. “It was luck and circumstance, but also, if you have a good piece of material, there are a lot of people reading out there. The old adage that everyone’s got a screenplay that no one will read - that’s kind of true. You can see that. But the truth is, everyone’s got a lot of bad screenplays that no one wants to read. If you have good material, if you keep pushing and pushing, chances are someone will bite.” And now that Kelly has established himself as superb storyteller and first-rate filmmaker, chances are his future films will continue to fascinate audiences the same way “Donnie Darko” did. |
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