SOUTHLAND
TALES PANEL:
Participants:
Writer/director
Richard Kelly
Producer Sean McKittrick
The Mechanicals
Despite lacing into SOUTHLAND
TALES when I saw it screened at the Cannes Film Festival earlier
this year (you can read my reivew HERE),
I was still looking quite forward to Richard Kelly’s panel about his
upcoming film, if only to hear what he had to say about it all.
Funnily enough, as I approached the front of the stage, I noticed
Richard himself standing up against the wall, not too far from me.
Seemingly approachable, I figured that I’d go over and introduce
myself, as I’d never actually met him before.
Me
(extending my hand): “Hey Richard, I’m from JoBlo.com”.
Kelly (extending his hand back): “Oh yeah, cool, cool.”
Phew!
That didn’t go all that bad.
I
told him that I had seen his film at Cannes, and asked what the
status of the film was right now. He replied, “What you saw in
Cannes was a ‘work in progress’. I’m working on it right now, and
once it’s done, I’ll release it the way that I want it to be.”
He seemed pretty content about the whole deal, and I didn’t want to
hog his time, so I asked for a quick picture (which he was gracious
enough to allow) and scooted back into my seat.
An asshole and an ambitious filmmaker
As
for the panel itself, to be honest with you…it was actually pretty
disappointing, especially at first. It started 30 minutes late
because they couldn’t get a clip of the film to work (Uhhhhm, how
about you just go on stage and talk first, in that case?), and then
once he got on stage, he didn’t really talk much about SOUTHLAND,
and instead, brought out about 8 members of a “comedy
troupe” called “The Mechanicals”, who all have small
parts in the film (and I mean real small!).
He
seemed to want to deflect the panel over to them (“Some of the
most fearless comedians I’ve ever encountered.”), or he simply
wasn’t comfortable speaking himself, but I’m pretty sure every
single person in that audience was there to hear Richard Kelly
discuss SOUTHLAND TALES, and not to watch some unknown comedy troupe
attempt to crack wise.
Oh,
by the way, during the 30-minute wait, Richard stayed near the front
of the stage and continued to talk with fans and take pictures with
them the whole time. As much as I think his Cannes cut of SOUTHLAND
sucked major ball, I will say that the man seemed like a pretty
classy dude in real life, and was a LOT better looking (a rich man’s
Nick Lachey) and (seemingly) more well-adjusted than you might
think. Here’s a small video of him with some fans.
When
the clip was finally shown, it was the scene in which Justin
Timberlake’s character is walking around an arcade of sorts,
lip-synching to The Killers’ “All These Things That I’ve Done”
(I’ve got soul, but I’m not a soldier!), as scantily clad nurses
dance and jiggle around him. He’s also drinking beer and looking at
the camera with a deep eye (he also pours the beer all over himself
at one point…you go, girl!). The scene is actually one of the only
“cool scenes” in the entire film (I even went out of my
way to mention it in my review), but it honestly doesn’t represent
the film in any sort of real way. It’s basically a 3-minute music
video, while the rest of the movie isn’t really musical. I’m not
sure why he chose to show this clip of all clips, but there it was.
“K-Fed’s an asshole…I said it”
But
even though the panel started slow with the emphasis on the comedy
group and all, things got back to business when the Q&A began,
and fans started to ask more pointed questions, which did lead to
some interesting facts, many of which I’ve listed below.
Kelly
said that as difficult as it was for him to get DONNIE DARKO off
the ground so many years ago, it was “three times as
difficult” to get SOUTHLAND TALES going, particularly
because it’s so unconventional.
Along
with the comedy group called The Mechanicals, many of which
originate from the Groundlings, Kelly purposely cast many
comedians in his film, because he wanted to paint it like pop
art, with it being the end of the world and all. Several present
and past “Saturday Night Live” cast members are also
in the movie.
Kelly
said that the film was inspired by the T.S. Ellliot poem
“The Hollow Men”, about the end of the world.
Despite
rumors to the contrary, both Kelly and McKittrick insisted that
the film’s budget was under $20M (via the $40-60M that were
reported), which is why they were given more freedom to do what
they wanted.
Kelly
envisioned the entire SOUTHLAND TALES project as a multimedia
project of sorts, with the first 3 “chapters” being
published as graphic novels, while the film includes the final 3
“chapters”. He didn’t say that one was required to
read the graphic novels in order to understand the film, but
having seen the movie, I can only imagine that it would help, as
the film as I saw it in Cannes, was as incoherent a film as I’ve
ever seen.
Kelly
said that he is a procrastinator by nature (even in college,
he’d always wait till the last minute to finish his papers), but
that they are presently putting the finishing touches on the 3rd
graphic novel. The artist for the series is Brett Weldele. The
first graphic novel, entitled “Two Roads Diverge”, has
already been released, the second graphic novel entitled
“Fingerprints” will be released in about 4-5 weeks,
and the third novel entitled “The Mechanicals” would
be released about 5-6 weeks after that. You should be able to
find them in most comic book stores, or click on the covers
below to check ’em out on Amazon.com right now.
SOUTHLAND
TALES is set in the year 2008, after 2 nuclear bombs have gone
off in Texas. Kelly tried to explain some of the film’s plotline
to the audience at this point, but to be honest with you, it was
pretty long-winded and complex, much like the film. There’s
stuff in there about a new drug called “Karma”,
alternate fuels, the latest war in Iraq, an underground
movement, neo-conservatives, neo-Marxists, porn actresses, movie
stars, time-travel and a whole bunch more. He seemed to lose the
audience a little as he went on about it. I LOVE the fact that
Kelly is ambitious and obviously doesn’t like to follow the
norm, but everything he tossed into this film could be covered
in 3 separate films better. I think he honestly just overshot
his reach here. Hopefully I’m wrong and the new “cut”
of the film kicks ass though.
Some
other major influences on Kelly and SOUTHLAND include Mickey
Spillane, Raymond Chandler (specifically “Kiss Me
Deadly”) and obviously Philip K. Dick.
When
someone asked Kelly what “genre” SOUTHLAND belonged
to, he said that it was very hard to say and that he didn’t envy
a video-store clerk who would be required to place the film in a
specific section, but if he had to say, he would say
SCIENCE-FICTION first, then COMEDY/SATIRE and finally, MUSICAL
(which I personally don’t “get”, because in the cut
that I saw in Cannes, there were only 2 musical sing-a-long
scenes). Ultimately though, he said the film was a mix of many
different genres.
I’d hit it
Another
reason that Kelly said that he wrote such a political project
was because he wanted to engage younger viewers to discuss some
of the many serious issues happening in the world today.
Admirable, to be sure.
The
score in the film is by Moby, and not by Trent Reznor, as had
been rumored in some parts.
The
DONNIE DARKO questions started as well, including the
possibility of a comic book based on the film, or maybe even
some graphic novels? Kelly tried to be diplomatic in his
response, but ultimately said something along the lines of,
“I’ve moved on with my life.” He said that he just
wanted to keep moving forward and that he is already
started to put the beginning touches on his next film (more on
that below).
In
terms of where they’re at with SOUTHLAND TALES right now, Kelly
re-iterated what he had told me earlier which was that the cut
shown in Cannes was a “work in progress” (we were
never told this while we were in Cannes, but let’s just “go
with it” for now), and that they had basically run out of
time and money at the time, so they just showed it that way.
They are presently working with Sony Pictures, who purchased the
rights to distribute the film in North America, and said that
“We’re still finding the film now”, after which, Sony
will look at it and decide when to release it. The bottom line
for now is that nobody still knows when the film will be
released. Kelly added that the cut that will ultimately be
released will be “the film that I always wanted to
make.”
I’d hit that too
Someone
got up to ask Kelly what influences his bizarre and often
unconventional stories, and Kelly joked: “Mental
illness.” He then said that it was basically the things
that go through most people’s minds like “fear, anxiety and
depression.”
When
asked about his admiration of auteur Stanley Kubrick, Kelly
gushed and said that he believed him to be the “greatest
filmmaker who ever lived.” and commended his commitment and
vision in all of his movies. He said that he also greatly
admired the man’s supreme attention to detail and how he managed
to never compromise his work or see it corrupted. “He was a
pure artist.” Kelly then added, “I hope that I can
continue to make the films that I want to make. I’d like to
release at least 10 of these before I keel over.” Kelly
also named 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY as one of his favorite movies
of all-time, and said that the narrator in BARRY LYNDON
influenced his own narrator in SOUTHLAND TALES.
When
writer/director Kevin Smith was brought up (Smith recorded a
commentary track with Kelly for DONNIE DARKO’s DVD), Kelly said
that Smith actually had a part in SOUTHLAND as a character named
Simon Theory, a veteran of the first war in Iraq. He said that
Smith would be unrecognizable to many, as he is playing a
55-year old man, and had to endure 6 hours of prosthetics/make-up
(not to mention the fact that he had to shave his trade-mark
beard). He praised Smith’s work in the film, and also said that
Smith himself put up the money to finance his SOUTHLAND graphic
novels, and that he was, simply, “A great human being to
whom I owe a lot.”
The man, the myth, the beard
Someone
brought up the ultra-weirdo fan who flipped out on Kelly at the
Comic Con a couple of years earlier (see our coverage of that
panel HERE),
and Kelly confirmed that the man was apparently just an
“actor” who his buddies had hired to play that prank
on him. Kelly took it all in stride, included the bit on the
DARKO DVD, and even gave the guy a part in SOUTHLAND. The
actor’s name is Darryl Donaldson.
When
asked about future projects, Kelly said that he had been offered
many “mainstream” projects and that he’d actually love
to do them. He mentioned that he’d be interested in doing a
“comic book movie”, and even went as far as to say
that he’d love to do “one movie a year from now on.”
He said that if one of his own “personal movies”
wasn’t coming together, he’d be more than willing to make other
movies in the meantime, action, romantic comedy, whatever. When
asked if he would do a studio film, he replied, “I’d do a
studio job, absolutely!”. He then said that he would like
still have a little “science-fiction” in all of his
movies, even if he were to do a romantic comedy.
To
that end, Kelly announced that his next project would be a film
called THE BOX, about which you can read more HERE.
When
asked about which he preferred, writing or directing, Kelly was
specific in his response and said that even though he enjoys
writing and it “pays the bills”, he ultimately thought
that it was a very “lonely” process, and that he much
preferred directing, as he gets to talk with people that way,
and collaborate, etc…
Now
while I certainly don’t want to put words in Kelly’s mouth, he
ultimately sounded a little tired of both DARKO and SOUTHLAND, and
really just wanted to move on and start banging out some other
films. It felt like the two experiences had really been rough on the
guy, and he just wanted to experience a couple of “easier”
projects. This is just MY OPINION though, he didn’t say anything to
confirm this…it’s just the “feel” that I got. Then
again, I was hungover.