'Donnie Darko' Director Richard Kelly Wants To Make A "Bigger And More Ambitious" Sequel

‘Donnie Darko’ Director Richard Kelly Wants To Make A “Bigger And More Ambitious” Sequel

I know what some of you are thinking, didn’t aDonnie Darkosequel already happen? Yes, it did. It was calledS. Darko, andDonnie Darkowriter-directorRichard Kellyand Darko Entertainmentpublicly denounced it. Kelly had no control over the rights of the original film, so the sequel moved forward without his approval. The director and his producing partners didn’t even profit from the straight-to-DVD cash grab. Kelly is now interested in a realDonnie Darkosequel, or some “big and expensive” movie set in the Darkoverse, if you will.

Below, read the director’s thoughts on aDonnie Darkosequel.

To celebrate the recent 15th anniversary ofDonnie Darko, a new restoration of the cult film starringJake Gyllenhaalis coming to Blu-ray. While discussing the proper restoration withHMV, Kelly talked about the idea of a sequel to his cult sci-fi movie:

I think there’s something much bigger and more ambitious to do in that universe. It’s big and expensive and I think there’s time to get to that. I want to ensure we’ve got the budget to do it justice and not to compromise anything. Another story in this world needs resources and we need to have that in place.

AfterS. Darkowas released,Bloody-Disgustingran a rumor claiming Kelly was maybe a part of anotherDonnie Darkosequel. That story was never confirmed or denied. But making another Darko film, one that sounds more expensive than the original four million dollar indie, has clearly been on Kelly’s mind.

It’s been over seven years since a Richard Kelly film has hit theaters. His last movie,The Box, is an entertaining, stylish and extremely ambitious studio film that divided audiences and underperformed at the box office. In the years since thatRichard Mathesonadaptation came out, Kelly has worked on “a lot of different projects,” and he plans on directing one of them this year:

I’ve been working on a lot of different projects. The trouble is they’re all very ambitious and expensive so they take a lot of time to get in place. We’re being very careful to set things up properly, but I’m planning to make up for lost time and make several movies back to back. It’s nice to be able to bring people back to where we started, but I plan to be back behind a camera in 2017.

We’ve heard about a few of Kelly’s projects over the years. The director was going to collaborate withNicolas CageonAmicus, a wildtrue life storyabout a bizarre and compelling lawsuit. In 2012,Edgar Ramirezsigned onto star inKelly’sCorpus Christi. TheRobert Rodriguez-produced drama was described as a more grounded film compared to Kelly’s other works. We have no idea if the movie he wants to make next is one of those projects or another film set in afuturistic Manhattan, but hopefully, we’ll know soon enough.