Richard Kelly Wants to Make a ‘Southland Tales’ Prequel
You’ve probably seen fans and filmmakers live-tweeting movies in recent weeks as a way to stave off boredom during coronavirus quarantine. One of the best of the bunch so far was by director Richard Kelly as he discussed the making of his cult classic Southland Tales. The film was initially released to mixed reviews in 2006 as Kelly’s follow-up to his breakthrough sci-fi film Donnie Darko. But its reputation has grown through the years as reality has caught up to Southland Tales’ deranged vision of a Los Angeles populated by wannabe celebrities, and unhinged amnesiacs, and alternative energy sources.
You can check out Kelly’s Twitter feed for all of his comments; some of the interesting insights include the references to the similarly apocalyptic crime film Kiss Me Deadly, Kelly’s attempts to cast Rick Moranis in the movie, and the origin of the film’s infamous car commercial. The big highlight, though, has to be Kelly revealing that he now wants to return to the Southland Tales-iverse in the form of a prequel that would incorporate both animated and live action elements. As Kelly describes it, the “ambitious new script” for the prequel has already been written. His “hope” is to make this movie and then release it “in tandem with an expanded version of the existing film.”
As Kelly also noted, Southland Tales was always conceived as the second half of a massive story, which he originally depicted in a series of graphic novels. The new movie would essentially adapt that material with new stuff as well. Here’s Kelly’s description of his ideal Southland Tales prequel:
I would watch the heck out of a Southland Tales prequel. (I bought the graphic novels when they came out.) But really I just want any new Richard Kelly film. It’s been over a decade since Kelly’s last feature, 2009’s underrated The Box. That’s way too long to wait for a new movie from one of our great, weird indie genre filmmakers.
Gallery — The Best Sci-Fi Movie Posters Ever Made: