Donnie Darko just recently celebrated its 20th-anniversary last week and the film's director, Richard Kelly, has been making the rounds talking about the film and his not as loved follow-up, Southland Tales, due to its recent Blu-ray release. Much like the mystery that surrounds Donnie Darko for a lot of people that watch it, Kelly is teasing some vague details about a possible third film with "Comingsoon.net" that he claims a lot of work has been done on already.
"Well, I'm probably not allowed to say anything more than there has been an enormous amount of work completed. I'm hopeful that we might get to explore that world in a very big and exciting way. But we'll see what happens. But there has been a lot of work done. A lot of work has been done."
Donnie Darko did receive a sequel in 2009 called S. Darko and the story picks up seven years after the events of the first film and centers on Donnie's now 18-year-old sister Sam. The youngest Darko is troubled by what happened to her brother in the first film and begins to have problems with sleepwalking and is also having strange dreams that hint at an impending major catastrophe. The sequel did not receive the critical love of the original film and Kelly had zero involvement with the project. If a sequel was made, with Kelly on board, it would be a proper sequel to his original movie.
Donnie Darko focuses on Donnie (Gyllenhaal), who is lured out of his home one night by a mysterious figure wearing a terrifying rabbit suit. Once out, Donnie ends up saving a fellow high school student before a plane engine crashes through his bedroom. When the film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, reviews were stellar and the movie would go on to carry an 87% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes with a consensus that reads "Richard Kelly's debut feature Donnie Darko is a daring, original vision, packed with jarring ideas and intelligence and featuring a remarkable performance from Jake Gyllenhaal as the troubled title character." Despite the positive critical reception, by the time the film was released theatrically on October 26, 2001, the film's advertising featuring a crashing plane didn't sit well considering the September 11 attacks were a month before so the film was scarcely promoted, resulting in poor box office. It wasn't until the film arrived on home video that the movie achieved true cult status and it would go on to sell millions of copies. From there, the film became a midnight movie success, selling out screenings across North American and Europe. The film also stars Jena Malone, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Drew Barrymore, Mary McDonnell, Katherine Ross, Patrick Swayze, Noah Wyle, Stu Stone, Daveigh Chase, and James Duval.
I'm not sure how I feel about another film, even by Richard Kelly, because he really hasn't recaptured the magic of the first movie with his subsequent releases Southland Tales and The Box. Maybe a lot of his creative energy is in a new Donnie Darko story and it could be good but I'm not feeling 100% optimistic about that.
Do YOU want another Donnie Darko installment?