Richard Kelly (director)

James Richard Kelly (born March 28, 1975) is an American film director and writer, known for writing and directing the cult classic Donnie Darko in 2001.

Early life

Kelly was born James Richard Kelly in Newport News, Virginia, the son of Lane Kelly and Ennis Kelly.^{[citation needed]} He grew up in Midlothian, Virginia where he attended Midlothian High School and graduated in 1993.^{[citation needed]} When he was a child, his father worked for NASA on the Mars Viking Lander program. He won a scholarship to the University of Southern California to study at the USC School of Cinema-Television where he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He made two short films at USC, The Goodbye Place and Visceral Matter, before graduating in 1997.^[1]

Film career

Donnie Darko was given a budget of $4.5 million. This was his first feature and was nominated for 21 small awards, winning 11 of them, including a nomination for a Saturn Award. The film later ended up #2 on Empire magazine's list of 50 greatest independent films of all time, behind Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs.^[2]

He has written numerous scripts that have not been produced, most famous of which are the adaptations of Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle and Louis Sachar's Holes. The latter screenplay is available as a PDF on an unofficial Richard Kelly fansite,^[3] and Kelly hopes that he will one day secure the rights to the former, so that fans may read that one as well.^{[citation needed]}

His fourth film, and second feature, Southland Tales, a rough cut of which screened in competition at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival,^[4] was released November 16, 2007 and stars Dwayne Johnson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Seann William Scott, Kevin Smith and Miranda Richardson.

In 2008, Kelly's production company Darko Entertainment announced that it was producing the adaptation of the bestselling book I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell with director Bob Gosse.^[5][6] The book's author Tucker Max detailed Kelly's involvement in the process on his blog.^[7][8]

After the release of The Box,^[9] he said he was working on a thriller "set in Manhattan in the year 2014. We hope to shoot the movie in 3-D, and part of the movie would be filmed using full CGI motion capture."^[10] In 2011 he announced that he was writing and directing Corpus Christi, a Texas-set film to be produced by Eli Roth.^[11] It was reported that Corpus Christi was no longer happening due to financial and casting problems. Kelly will instead focus on a thriller titled Amicus slated for a 2014 release.

Themes and style

Although Richard Kelly's films differ considerably in setting and characters (Donnie Darko is about a suburban teenager, Southland Tales is an L.A. epic, and The Box is about a married couple in Richmond, Virginia), they share similar themes of time travel, existentialism, and spirituality.

Richard Kelly's style is composed of Steadicam based tracking shots and camera movement in general, satirical elements (as seen sparsely in Donnie Darko and much more prominently in Southland Tales), comedy, drama, and enigmatic plots. Music also plays a large role in Richard Kelly's films and one of his most famous scenes is in a closing segment of Donnie Darko where we are shown a montage of several characters awakening from their dreams to Gary Jules's version of the Tears for Fears song "Mad World".

Kelly's enthusiasm and direction can be traced back to his viewing of the film Brazil, as told to author Robert K. Elder in an interview for The Film That Changed My Life.^[12]

I think the greatest thing I learned from Terry is that every frame is worthy of attention to detail. Every frame is worthy of being frozen in time and then thrown on a wall like an oil painting, and if you work hard on every frame, the meaning of your film becomes deeper, more enhanced.^[13]

Filmography

Awards and nominations

Won

• 2001 – Sweden Fantastic Film Festival, Best Feature (Donnie Darko)
• 2001 – Catalonian International Film Festival, Best Screenplay (Donnie Darko)
• 2001 – San Diego Film Critics Society Award, Best Screenplay (Donnie Darko)
• 2002 – Gérardmer Film Festival, Premiere Award (Donnie Darko)
• 2002 – Cinénygma Film Festival, Audience Award (Donnie Darko)
• 2002 – Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival, Silver Scream Award (Donnie Darko)
• 2002 – Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, Special Award (Donnie Darko)
• 2003 – Chlotrudis Awards, Best Screenplay (Donnie Darko)

Nominated

• 2001 – Sundance Film Festival, Grand Jury Prize (Donnie Darko)
• 2001 – Catalonian International Film Festival, Best Film (Donnie Darko)
• 2002 – Online Film Critics Society Awards, OFCS Award (Donnie Darko)
• 2002 – Independent Spirit Awards, Best First Feature (Donnie Darko)
• 2002 – Independent Spirit Awards, Best First Screenplay (Donnie Darko)
• 2002 – Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, Most Promising Director
• 2003 – Chlotrudis Awards, Best Director (Donnie Darko)
• 2006 – Cannes Film Festival, Golden Palm (Southland Tales)^[4]

References

External links

• Richard Kelly at the Internet Movie Database
• Southland Tales
• Richard Kelly unofficial fansite
• Interview
• Donnie Darko Interview
• “The Film That Changed My Life”: Richard Kelly On Brazil