Sarah Michelle Gellar

Southland Tales

Starring : The Rock , Seann William Scott , Sarah Michelle Gellar , Miranda Richardson , Kevin Smith , Lou Taylor Pucci , Mandy Moore , Janeane Garofalo , Jill Ritchie , Cheri Oteri , Amy Poehler , Christopher Lambert Directed by Richard Kelly

What next after Donnie Darko? Writer-director Richard Kelly’s first feature since his cult hit is an extraordinary tale set in a near-future Los Angeles

It’s fair to say 2001’s Donnie Darko was a cult classic that defined a generation, the most important US indie of the decade so far. A high school love story that slipped into time warping sci-fi complete with suggestions of madness, it launched writer-director Richard Kelly’s career and that of its star Jake Gyllenhaal.

After Donnie Darko Kelly, pursued a collaboration with Cabin Fever and Hostel director Eli Roth, but that went quiet in favour of his work on the script for Domino, directed by Tony Scott. It was a bizarre detour, but now he seems to be back on track. Not only does the Roth collaboration - The Box, an adaptation of a story by the great Richard Matheson, whose novel ’I Am Legend’ was the source for both The Last Man On Earth and The Omega Man and who wrote Duel for Spielberg - appear to be still on the cards, Kelly’s intriguing Southland Tales is currently in post-production.

It has been a long time coming. During initial preproduction in 2004, Kelly also found time to put together the director’s cut of Donnie Darko. In May 2004, Kelly was saying the start date on the film was "absolutely still planned for the summer" but casting wasn’t yet complete and the perennially problematic question of independent film financing was proving "frustrating". However, Kelly already had key cast members Sarah Michelle Gellar, Seann William Scott, Kevin Smith, Tim Blake Nelson and Jason Lee in place and was working to confirm Janeane Garofalo. Since then, Lee and Nelson have dropped out, while Dwayne ’The Rock’ Johnson, who co-starred with Scott in the fun but forgettable Welcome To The Jungle, came on board as the star. Principle shooting started in August 2005 in LA, on an estimated budget of $15 million. It’s a meagre sum compared to the amounts Hollywood studios spend, but then Kelly worked wonders on Donnie Darko’s $4.5 million.