Among the many reasons behind the infamy of Richard Kelly‘s post-apocalyptic misfire “Southland Tales,” the brutal reception it received at Cannes paved the way. The filmmaker, dubbed the next hot thing following “Donnie Darko,” brought his ambitious followup to the Croisette, where it played in Competition and was promptly torn to shreds by critics. But here’s one thing you might not know — the movie wasn’t finished.
“I wanted to go into Cannes and tell everyone that it was a work in progress, but I just remember a lot of people surrounding me saying, ‘Don’t say that. You don’t tell anyone that,’ ” the director told THR last year. Well, a chance to reassess the picture may be on the horizon.
Chatting with Vulture as “Donnie Darko” makes its way into cinemas in a new 4K re-release, Kelly revealed that “Southland Tales” may also be returning, and perhaps in a bigger package.
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“Nothing is official yet, but there have been a lot of internal discussions about bringing ‘Southland Tales’ back in a big way and in an expanded way. I think a few more ducks have to fall into place, things need to be solidified, but there is definitely a path opening to much more ‘Southland Tales’ and we just want to make sure that we’re really doing it properly and realizing the full potential of the narrative,” he said. “So stay tuned for more on the ‘Southland Tales’ front, that’s for sure. We’re moving things in the right directions.”
So, what could this mean? Well, right now, the only version of the film available on Blu-ray is the 145-minute cut, but what fans might know is that at Cannes, the movie ran 160 minutes. The fallout from the Croisette saw Kelly go back into the editing back and recut his film, but perhaps he’s continued tinkering since. And don’t forget, back in 2010, he revealed that he’s penned an animated prequel to “Southland Tales.” Perhaps he’s trying to get that going? Intriguing stuff, and it’ll be interesting to see if he’s able to go return and perhaps try and salvage the material. There’s a certainly a whole new generation of moviegoers who aren’t familiar with the movie at all.
Thoughts? Let us know below.