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So far director Richard Kelly's The Box is one of the more polarizing movies of the year. Like it or not, one thing we can all agree on from seeing the trailer: Cameron Diaz totally cannot do a Southern accent.
"Yes,The Box is crazy and convoluted, moody and melodramatic. But above all it is, in narrative and form, a mystery."
— Chris Cabin, filmcritic.com
"...The Box triumphantly qualifies for one of my favorite adjectives, 'preposterous.' But if you make a preposterous movie that isn't boring, I count that as some kind of a triumph."
— Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"The Box is alternately fluid and inspired, and rarely dull (though it is a little, on occasion). But too often it also feels strained..."
— Manohla Dargis, New York Times
"This preposterous Cameron Diaz thriller offers a promising premise: a mysterious box bestows riches in exchange for killing a stranger. But then it dumps in existentialism, government conspiracies, aliens, nosebleeds, deformities—and dresses it all in ugly '70s polyester fashions and geo-print wallpaper. Blecch."
— Matt Stevens, E! Online
"An artistic fiasco that cuts across genre lines and all logic to become, perhaps, an instant midnight movie."
— Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter
Posted 11.06.09 by reelz -
Richard Kelly's latest movie, The Box, explores what would happen if a couple was presented with an offer of one million dollars that would also result in a stranger's death. Originally a short story from acclaimed horror writer Richard Matheson, The Box will debut in theaters November 6. To promote its release, Warner Brothers have released five new clips of the movie, but should you like to remain unspoiler-ed, we suggest you don't watch them. Only push the "play" button if you dare...
Here, Cameron Diaz receives the offer of the box from Frank Langella.
Diaz discusses the offer with her husband (James Marsden).
Here, Diaz learns about consequence from Langella.
To see the other two clips, head here.
Posted 10.31.09 by Ryan -
The studio has released a new batch of pictures from Richard Kelly's The Box. A re-imagining of a classic Twilight Zone episode, the movie revolves around a couple (Cameron Diaz and James Marsden) who are given a mysterious box with a button that simultaneously gives them a million dollars but takes a random stranger's life.
In homage to the story's roots, Kelly has set the movie in a meticulously recreated 1970's suburbia, with special attention paid to some of the less-well-considered fashion choices of the decade. Witness the particularly scary wallpaper and plaid pants on display.
That box technology comes from somewhere else, though. So we also get a glimpse of weird, watery, otherworldly scenes that don't seem retro at all. All that plus a good look at the disturbing scar on the face of the mysterious stranger (Frank Langella) who brings the box in the first place.
Posted 10.20.09 by reelz -
Rumors of a Donnie Darko sequel involving director Richard Kelly, who wrote and directed the original Donnie Darko but had no part in the straight-to-DVD sequel S. Darko: a Donnie Darko Tale, found their way online months ago. MTV asked if Kelly would return for a third Darko and his response was an emphatic debunking:
Absolutely not. I know nothing about it and I would never have any involvement with any existing or future sequel to Donnie Darko ever — ever! Never ever ever ever would I be involved with anything like that.
So, just to be clear ... that's a no, right?
Kelly's most recent work, The Box, an adaptation of a Richard Matheson (I Am Legend) short story, is due in theaters November 6.
Posted 08.05.09 by Ryan -
Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly showed some more footage from his upcoming movie The Box at Comic-Con, and quite a few unexpected things popped out, including some pretty major spoilers — be warned.
The movie, based on an old Twilight Zone episode, centers around an ordinary suburban couple who receive a mysterious box. Push the button inside and you get rich, but some stranger dies. The couple seem decent enough, though they are plagued by financial difficulties. They are, after all, directly modeled on the director's own parents.
So there is a lot of temptation, but a lot of resistance — right? Apparently not. The wife (Cameron Diaz) shocked the audience by just going ahead and pushing the button. Ultimately, the movie really turns out to be a lot more about what comes next than it is about agonizing over the choice ... and from all reports, those consequences are quite a bit more bizarre and sci-fi than expected.
Another highlight was the face of Frank Langella, who plays the creepy disfigured man who brings the couple the box. He is only glimpsed fleetingly in the trailer, so this was the first chance to catch more of his face. The CGI involved here was apparently disturbingly impressive.
Posted 07.27.09 by reelz -
The Box, adapted from a short story and Twilight Zone episode, is a science fiction period piece with a moral dilemma at its center. A financially strapped couple (Cameron Diaz and James Marsden) receives a mysterious box from a stranger. In it is a button. Push it and all their financial problems are solved, but someone they don't know dies.
A timely enough dilemma given the global financial crisis, but Richard Kelly has set his adaptation in the 70s in homage to the story's roots and modeled the couple on his own parents. So in a sense, the movie allows him to return to his childhood.
In the trailer we get an introduction to his vision of 1976 suburbia (scary wallpaper, regional accents) and some hints of how he has expanded the original story line. There appears to be some sort of corporate conspiracy centered around the strange disfigured man (Frank Langella) who sent them the box, and we get a brief glimpse of a few weird images that are definitely not 1976.
Posted 06.25.09 by reelz -
The Box started out as a six-page short story published in 1970 and was later adapted for a episode of the New Twilight Zone. But in re-working this sci-fi morality tale for the big screen, director Richard Kelly suggests that he is aiming more for a throwback than an update.
The basic story is quite simple. A disfigured stranger gives a suburban couple a mysterious box. Inside the box is a button. If they push it, they get a million dollars, but there's a catch: some person they don't know will die.
In a wide-ranging interview over at AICN, Kelly explains how he fleshed out the plot a bit, adding a nefarious corporation and some sort of connection to NASA's Viking program to the background. Mainly though, he talks about how he tried to give it more depth by recreating the look and feel of the 1970s – all the way down to the wallpaper. And then, to make it personal, he added his parents.
He used them and even their accents as a model for the couple in the movie played by James Marsden and Cameron Diaz. Things got a little weird though when he brought them on set to watch the filming:
It's very meta. You have my parents feeling like they're in a Twilight Zone episode watching James Marsden and Cameron Diaz portray very personal, autobiographical things about their life with their son directing it in this amazing Richard Matheson story that we've all grown up with.
More details are sure to be coming soon, with the first trailer for The Box debuting in the next week or so and move footage scheduled to be shown at Comic-Con in late July.
Posted 06.19.09 by reelz -
It's only a rumor at this point, but Bloody Disgusting is saying that Fox may be planning a third installment of the 2001 cult hit Donnie Darko, which starred Jake Gyllenhaal and was directed by Richard Kelly (Southland Tales).
The story of the first movie takes place in 1988 in a suburban town called Middlesex. Donnie Darko (Gyllenhaal) is a teenage boy plagued by visions of a giant murderous bunny that tells him the world will end on Halloween. Sounds ridiculous, but the narrative combines high school melodrama, sci-fi, and horror in a seamless genre-bending package that provides more than a few memorable twists and turns.
Kelly did not return to direct the second movie, S. Darko: A Donnie Darko Tale, which was a largely forgettable straight-to-DVD release that came out last month. But rumor has it that he will return for the third movie.
We'll let you know when we get further developments.
Posted 06.18.09 by reelz -
Richard Kelly's The Box, which is now slated to release on October 30, 2009, has a new poster and a MySpace update from the director. The new poster, which has a wide blood red swath bisceting Cameron Diaz's face, highlights the blood price around which the film is based.
Adapted from the short story "Button, Button" by Richard Matheson of I Am Legend fame, it's the tale of a young couple who receive a mysterious box that promises to bestow $1 million, at the mere cost of some random stranger's life. The story received an earlier, somewhat campy adaption, in the New Twilight Zone.
On his MySpace page, director Richard Kelly says, among other things, that the movie is completely finished, takes place in Virginia in 1976, and will include a whole lot of visual effects that required eight-months of post production. "It will be," he promises, "his most personal film ever."
Posted 04.06.09 by reelz -
Southland Tales, director Richard Kelly's long-delayed follow-up to the cult smash Donnie Darko, is set to finally arrive in theaters this November after an extensive re-cut mandated by the film's disastrous debut last year at Cannes.
While few have seen Kelly's final cut, the new version has earned one key endorsement, from star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
"I've seen it and it's fantastic," raved Johnson, whose name appears in Southland Tales' credits for the first time sans the trademark "Rock" moniker. "It's nothing like I imagined, and much better than the cut we showed at the Cannes Film Festival."
Johnson made the remarks over the weekend at the press day for the Disney flick The Game Plan, which opens this Friday.
Posted 09.24.07 by reelz