Richard Kelly (filmmaker)

Richard Kelly
Kelly speaking at a screening
Born
James Richard Kelly
Alma materUniversity of Southern California (BFA)
Occupations
  • Film director
  • screenwriter
  • producer
Years active1996–present

James Richard Kelly is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. He wrote and directed the films Donnie Darko (2001), Southland Tales (2006), and The Box (2009).

Early life

Kelly grew up in Midlothian, Virginia, where he attended Midlothian High School and graduated in 1993.[1] When he was a child, his father worked for NASA on the Mars Viking Lander program. He won a scholarship to the University of Southern California to study at the USC School of Cinema-Television where he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He made two short films at USC, The Goodbye Place and Visceral Matter, before graduating in 1997.[2]

Kelly spoke of viewing the film Brazil with author Robert K. Elder in an interview for The Film That Changed My Life:

I think the greatest thing I learned from Terry is that every frame is worthy of attention to detail. Every frame is worthy of being frozen in time and then thrown on a wall like an oil painting, and if you work hard on every frame, the meaning of your film becomes deeper, more enhanced.[3]

Film career

Donnie Darko (2001) is Kelly's first feature and was nominated for 21 awards, winning eleven. It later made #2 on Empire magazine's list of the 50 greatest independent films of all time, behind Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs.[4]

In 2005, Kelly wrote the screenplay for the Tony Scott-directed film, Domino. Kelly has said: "That was a wonderful experience. I wrote that for Tony Scott. That was Tony Scott's very personal project that he had spent eight years developing with Domino Harvey, a close friend of his and almost like a daughter to him. He had spent years trying to tell her story and so that for me, it was an honor for me to get to work with Tony and to write that script for him and to design this really elaborate puzzle for him to tell her story. So that was just a privilege."[5]

Kelly has written numerous scripts that have not been produced, among them adaptations of Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle[6] and Louis Sachar's Holes.[7]

His fourth film and second feature, Southland Tales, a rough cut of which screened in competition at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival,[8] was released November 16, 2007, and stars Dwayne Johnson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Seann William Scott, Kevin Smith and Miranda Richardson.

In 2008, Kelly's production company Darko Entertainment announced that it was producing the adaptation of the bestselling book I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell with director Bob Gosse.[9][10] The book's author Tucker Max detailed Kelly's involvement in the process on his blog.[11][12]

After the release of The Box,[13] he said he was working on a thriller "set in Manhattan in the year 2014. We hope to shoot the movie in 3-D, and part of the movie would be filmed using full CGI motion capture."[14] In 2011, he announced that he was writing and directing Corpus Christi, a Texas-set film to be produced by Eli Roth.[15] The production was cancelled due to financial and casting problems. Kelly said he would instead focus on a true crime thriller titled Amicus, starring James Gandolfini, whose death in 2013 prevented that.[16]

In an interview with PopMatters magazine in 2017, Kelly said in regard to doing an official sequel to Donnie Darko: "I'm open to doing something much bigger and longer and more ambitious that could be a new story," Kelly said and then added, "We'll see what happens. I have a lot of stuff that I'm working on and it's ambitious and it's expensive and we'll see what happens."[5] Regarding the 2009 Donnie Darko sequel S. Darko, Kelly has said: "I had nothing to do with it. And I hate it when people try and blame me or hold me responsible for it because I had no [involvement]. I don't control the underlying rights to [the Donnie Darko franchise]. I had to relinquish them when I was 24 years old. I hate when people ask me about that because I've never seen it and I never will, so… don't ask me about the sequel."[5]

Reception

In 2016, filmmaker Kevin Smith said of Kelly: "He is insanely creative and is not unlike Christopher Nolan. But Nolan wound up in the Warner Bros. system where he got special handling, and he got a lot of money to make huge art films like Inception. Richard can be one of our greatest filmmakers. He is right now, but just a lot of people don't realize it. He's still a kid, and someone needs to Nolan that kid."[17]

Filmography

Short film

Year Title Director Writer Producer Notes
1996 The Goodbye Place Yes Yes Yes Also sound designer
1997 Visceral Matter Yes Yes No

Feature film

Year Title Director Writer Producer
2001 Donnie Darko Yes Yes No
2004 Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut Yes Yes No
2005 Domino No Yes No
2006 Southland Tales Yes Yes No
2009 World's Greatest Dad No No Yes
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell No No Yes
The Box Yes Yes Yes
2010 Operation: Endgame No No Yes

Awards and nominations

Year Award Category Title Result
2001 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize Donnie Darko Nominated
Sitges Film Festival Best Film Nominated
2002 Online Film Critics Society Breakthrough Filmmaker Nominated
Independent Spirit Awards Best First Feature Nominated
Best First Screenplay Nominated
Chicago Film Critics Association Most Promising Director Nominated
2006 Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or Southland Tales Nominated

References

  1. ^ The New York Times Archived March 9, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Notable Alumni, USC School of Cinematic Arts. Archived February 24, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Kelly, Richard. Interview by Robert K. Elder. The Film That Changed My Life. By Robert K. Elder. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2011. N. p54. Print.
  4. ^ The 50 Greatest Independent Films, Empire Online Archived July 25, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ a b c Maçek III, J.C. (April 3, 2017). "Mainstream Darko: Director Richard Kelly on Building His Own Sandbox". PopMatters. Archived from the original on October 18, 2017. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  6. ^ Richard-kelly.net Archived March 10, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ "Richard Kelly on Twitter". Twitter. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved November 3, 2018.
  8. ^ "Festival de Cannes: Southland Tales". festival-cannes.com. Archived from the original on August 22, 2011. Retrieved December 13, 2009.
  9. ^ Siegel, Tatiana (June 5, 2008). "Darko to serve Tucker Max's 'Beer'". Variety. Archived from the original on July 3, 2010. Retrieved June 20, 2008.
  10. ^ FirstShowing.net Archived June 10, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Darko Entertainment Adapting I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
  11. ^ "IHSTBIH Blog Entry: Darko to serve Tucker Max's Beer". ihopetheyservebeerinhell.com. June 6, 2008. Archived from the original on August 28, 2008.
  12. ^ Tucker Max shares his opinion of Darko Entertainment Richard Kelly's homepage Archived December 10, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  13. ^ "Video Interviews with the Director and Stars of 'The Box'". BloodyDisgusting. November 3, 2009. Archived from the original on August 9, 2016. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  14. ^ Eggertsen, Chris (November 3, 2009). "Richard Kelly Planning 3-D Thriller!". BloodyDisgusting. Archived from the original on August 9, 2016. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  15. ^ Zeitchik, Steven (February 17, 2011). "Richard Kelly looks to cash in another comeback ticket". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on August 15, 2016. Retrieved February 21, 2011.
  16. ^ Siegel, Tatiana (May 5, 2016). "Anatomy of a Cannes Disaster: What Happened After 'Southland Tales' was Booed". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on December 3, 2020. Retrieved May 17, 2016.
  17. ^ "Anatomy of a Cannes Disaster: What Happened After 'Southland Tales' Was Booed". The Hollywood Reporter. May 9, 2016. Archived from the original on December 3, 2020. Retrieved January 15, 2017.