Ahhh, Richard Kelly. Just the name should send you back to the early 2000s when the breakout success of his film Donnie Darko had him as one of the fastest-rising directors in Hollywood. Anybody who then saw him futile efforts to explain the mind-numbing movie should’ve seen what would happen next. He didn’t do anything again until 2006’s Southland Tales, a whopper of a dud that most people avoided like the Plague. Kelly hasn’t directed anything since 2009’s The Box, which to me is his best movie by far, but now he’s back with a film that should be much easier to figure out.
According to Production Weekly (via Comicbook.com), Kelly is in line to write and direct a biopic on The Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling. His interest in the film makes sense, as The Box was originally based on Twilight Zone episode Button, Button. It’s unclear what angle Kelly will take on Serling’s life, but before he became the host of the iconic television series he served in the Army and built a substantial career in acting and broadcasting. He used his public platform to champion a number of causes, from racial equality to his antiwar stance.
Perhaps a straight-forward biopic is the best way for Kelly to make a comeback, but looking at his past work the last thing we should expect is just another common movie.
