Remember last week, when I wondered what would happen with Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly's Southland Tales with the director officially moving on to his next project? Shortly after writing that post, I got on an airplane, and Kelly updated his MySpace blog:
As for Southland Tales... we are about halfway through completing all of the new visual effects. We have to deliver everything by the end of summer. I have to tell everyone that the amount of visual effects work being added to the film is SIGNIFICANT... and I am so grateful for the work being done by Thomas Tannenberger and his team at Gradient VFX in Venice Beach.
And I can confirm that a company has been hired by Sony to begin work on a trailer. The release date will be announced very soon.
This post would seem to be carefully designed to telegraph two messages:
1) Those are his caps on SIGNIFICANT. At ComicCon last summer, Kelly distanced himself from the Cannes cut of Southland, insisting that the version shown to critics the previous May lacked the special effects needed to flesh out the story. (Post-Cannes 2006, there were rumors that the stars of Southland were looking for distance, too--rumors which were given credence by the fact that not a single boldfaced name joined Kelly on stage in San Diego.) He's clearly saying, "This movie looks totally different from the movie that got those crappy reviews."
2) Based on the phrasing of the final sentence, it;s sounds like Sony isn't planning on setting a release date until they have a trailer/a better idea of how/when/to whom they can market the film. Considering the time and money they've already invested, that would make sense.
The verdict? This news is better than no news, but Kelly fans can hardly breathe easy.
More on Spout:
Southland Tales: What's The Deal?
Southland Tales
Donnie Darko
Originally posted on:
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