It has been 15 years since Richard Kelly arrived with his breakout debut feature film “Donnie Darko.” Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, the film about a troubled teenager, a giant rabbit, the darkness of suburbia, and the apocalypse became a near-instant cult favorite, and saw Hollywood flock to Kelly as the next great director. Unfortunately, all that goodwill would be squandered by the colossal flop “Southland Tales,” and by time he made “The Box,” another commercial failure, his career was on the skids (and indeed, he hasn’t directed a movie since). However, it’s easy to forget that “Donnie Darko” wasn’t warmly embraced at first.
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“ ‘Darko’ was a disaster at Sundance…” Kelly recently told The Guardian. “No one remembers that, but it was. I’m grateful for any rosy glow of hindsight. I remember it took us almost six months to sell the movie. It almost went directly to the Starz network. We had to beg them to put it in theaters. Christopher Nolan stepped in and convinced Newmarket to put it in theaters.”
Well, you’ll now have your chance to see it again on the big screen — at least in the U.K. — as Arrow Films will be re-releasing it in cinemas on December 17th, and also bringing it to Blu-ray in a massive new boxset, with a new 4K restoration of both the theatrical and director’s cut of the movie. Fingers crossed we get the crisp new “Donnie Darko” stateside soon too.