Risk Taker

Richard Kelly ’97 Spins A New Story With Southland Tales

Southland Tales opens in New York and Los Angeles on November 14.

Though he arguably says that age 25 is too young for a first feature deal, Richard Kelly ’97 will be the first to admit he was crazy enough to make the risks somehow pay off for him. Today at 32, Kelly’s long journey for his latest film Southland Tales is set to culminate in the movie’s opening in New York and Los Angeles on November 14.

“I’ve always been fascinated by really elaborate science fiction and my favorite movies are filled with lots of details and mystery,” said Kelly before he and one of the film’s editors, fellow alumnus Darrin Roberts appeared at a Q&A following a student screening of Southland Tales on November 4.

In 2008 with Los Angeles on the brink of social, economic and environmental disaster, Southland Tales is set over the course of three days that culminate in a massive 4th of July

Writer and director Richard Kelly on the set.

celebration. The large ensemble cast includes Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Seann William Scott as a Hermosa Beach police officer who holds the key to a vast conspiracy. The film, with its kaleidoscopic structure, fantasy sequences and psychedelic nature immediately invites repeated viewings and will no doubt cultivate a whole new obsessive fan base much like Kelly’s last film, Donnie Darko.
 
“The nature of making these kinds of movies is that you’re going to get every kind of reaction,” offered the production B.A. alumnus when asked how he responds to the sometimes negative and vicious reception his film has received. “I’d rather get that than indifference.”

Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott, and Richard Kelly on the set of Southland Tales.

Finishing the first draft of the script in 2001, wrapping production in 2005, spending the last two years in post and working on the film’s three graphic novel (a long-form comic packaged like a book) prequels in collaboration with artist Brett Weldele, Kelly says making the film was “like a rubik’s cube.”

“My hope is that the novels extend Southland’s theatrical life,” Kelly added, noting that in order to get the audience up-to-speed on the story, he and his team worked all summer on the film’s prologue animation that focuses on the movie’s doomsday scenario. That said, he wanted to ensure that Southland Tales would “be accessible to the 95 percent of the audience” who may not have read the film’s graphic novel prequels.

“You never know who may find the movie because of the book and vice-versa,” he added.

Describing himself as “the guy who orders too much food and can’t finish it all,” Kelly admits that with everything that went into Southland Tales’ gargantuan idea, “it became a test of my own endurance and sanity to finish it and finish it properly.”

Although a scheduled Saturday Night Live appearance on November 10 by “The Rock” has been cancelled due to the Writer’s Guild strike, Kelly says that even without the extra publicity, he’s hopeful that the Wednesday opening will benefit Southland Tales’ theater staying power.

“Everything about Southland Tales has been one big risk after another. My brain feels like it’s been through a microwave,” he added before his scheduled red eye flight to Boston where shooting is set to begin on his next film The Box, starring Cameron Diaz. “I’m going to make life easier with my third film.”