Richard Kelly Hopes To Direct ‘Southland Tales’ Prequel Based On “Ambitious” New Script

Richard Kelly had one of the most inexplicable cult-favorite films ever, at least to me, with 2001’s Donnie Darko. There are a handful of terrible movies that I feel groupthink played a part in their success, and Donnie Darko was one. Kelly followed it up, and proved his inadequacy as a filmmaker, with 2006’s wildly incoherent Southland Tales, which was critically-reviled by all. He would go on to direct just one more movie, 2009’s decent-but-forgettable The Box, but has been quiet ever since. Now he hopes to return with a sequel absolutely nobody is asking for.

According to The Film Stage, Kelly recently hosted a viewing party of Southland Tales. Good lord. He explained that he and his team have completed a 4K restoration of the 158-minute Cannes cut of the film, and that he’s also been working on an “ambitious” prequel script that he hopes to direct.

Note the emphasis on “hope” there. I think Kelly knows that no studio is going to finance anything involving Southland Tales. The Film Stage does note that Kelly was reportedly talking to an unnamed studio a year ago about this project. It was Mubi that hosted his viewing party, so maybe it’s them? Seems a bit out of their scope, but who knows? As unappealing as a new Richard Kelly movie is to me, there’s a certain group of people who will really be into this.