Richard Kelly has plans for a bigger and more ambitious Donnie Darko sequel

Richard Kelly's DONNIE DARKO was unleashed upon the world over fifteen years ago, and, although its box-office take didn't impress at the time, it soon developed a strong cult following and it seemed that almost everyone had an opinion on just what the heck was going on in the film. Kelly's next two projects, SOUTHLAND TALES and THE BOX, weren't received nearly as well as DONNIE DARKO was, and the writer/director has largely stayed out of the public view since then.

However, Richard Kelly recently told HMV that he is planning a return and among the numerous projects which he hopes to set up is a bigger and more ambitious sequel to DONNIE DARKO.

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 make sure 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.

While I question whether DONNIE DARKO is a film which really needs a sequel or an expanded universe, it certainly couldn't be any worse than S. DARKO, the straight-to-DVD sequel from 2009 which Richard Kelly had no involvement with. Although Kelly seems keen on revisting the world of DONNIE DARKO, he plans on tackling another film first.

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.

Would you like to see a proper sequel to DONNIE DARKO? If so, in what ways could Kelly expand the world?