So what's going on with Southland Tales?
Never heard of it? Well, allow me to elaborate...
Southland Tales is a sci-fi movie arriving in cinemas this summer from writer-director Richard Kelly. Now, Kelly's hardly a household name, but he's a cult in certain circles thanks to his last movie – Donnie Darko (2001). You may have heard about it. Anyway, expectation is very high amongst fans of Donnie and also people who enjoy the sort of mind-bending science fiction Tales seems to be.
The movie is set in the near-future, after a nuclear attack on L.A in 2008. This attack sends American into war, and the resulting scarcity of fuel results in a company called USIDent creating an inexhaustible energy source from ocean currents. Into this strange backdrop we follow four characters: Boxer Santaros (The Rock), an action-movie star with amnesia; Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar), an ex-porn star; and twin brothers Ronald and Roland Taverner (Seann William Scott). These characters' destinies all collide in the movie and they have to save the world...
Sounds intriguing, doesn't it? Well, your interest may also be raised by the fact 3 graphic novels are going to be released prior to the movie. These novels tell the first 3 parts of the story (Two Roads Converge, Fingerprints and The Mechanicals). The actual movie will complete the story with 3 "chapters" of its own: Tempation Waits, Memory Gospel and Wave Of Mutilation.
So far, so good. Southland Tales should be one of this year's most talked about movies when it hits, right? It certainly seems like just the sort of multi-format sci-fi epic that genre fans really lap up. Remember The Matrix sequels and their variety of tie-ins? Well, unfortunately, Southland Tales hit a snag. It was called The Canne Film Festival. You see, Kelly's sophomore movie was entered into competition at the Festival for the coveted Palme d'Or... and reviews were bad. Very bad. In fact, the movie was slammed by practically every critic who saw it for being too long, too convoluted and too impenetrable. Ouch.
Right now Kelly is hammering away trying to edit the 3-hour movie into a more athletic 2 hours 15 minutes. It's a cut that could potentially make or break Kelly's career. Donnie Darko was a phenomenal success on DVD, prompting many magazines to declare it Best Film Of The Year. This late success prompted a Director's Cut, its "Mad World" closing song to reach Christmas Number 1 in the UK music charts, and also launched the career of Jake Gyllenhaal. Since then, Kelly has worked on a few unproduced scripts (including The Box with director Eli Roth), but his only produced bit of work post-Darko has been the script to Domino –- a movie that was slated by critics. Well, apparently his original screenplay was heavily rewritten, so he avoided much of the backlash...
But, all of this means Kelly has something to prove. He's in danger of being the movie equivalent of a One Hit Wonder. Southland Tales needs to work. Early word on the project was very positive, and expectations were massive earlier this year, but the Cannes catastrophe has brought everyone crashing back down to a more rational level now. Has Kelly let success go to his head and given us a totally unfocused mess of a movie, packed full of interesting ideas but ultimately laborious and pretentious?
Well, let's just see what the final edit looks like, eh? Donnie Darko also performed badly at Cannes, and it's now considered one of the best movies of the decade and a seminal teen flick! For now, visit www.southlandtales.com for some interesting and unusual content...
