Richard Kelly's Next Film

VARIETY: Frank Langella to star in Kelly's 'Box'
Actor joins Cameron Diaz in horror film - By DIANE GARRETT
Posted: Thurs., Oct. 11, 2007, 2:42pm PT

Frank Langella will star with Cameron Diaz in "The Box," a horror film to be directed by "Donnie Darko" helmer Richard Kelly.

The $30 million production is being bankrolled by Media Rights Capital.

Langella will play a stranger who presents a mysterious box to a woman.

Kelly wrote the script based on Richard Matheson short story "Button, Button" He is producing with Sean McKittrick of his Darko Entertainment shingle. Ted Hamm will be exec producer.

Pic starts shooting mid-November (Daily Variety, June 29). By then Langella will have wrapped the film version of "Frost/Nixon" for Imagine and director Ron Howard.

Langella won the Tony award for his work in "Frost/Nixon" on Broadway. In November, Roadside Attractions will release Langella's "Starting Out in the Evening" which played at Sundance and Toronto.

MRC, which pays star salaries along with partial copyright ownership that gives talent a DVD windfall, also bankrolled "Babel" and Sacha Baron Cohen's "Bruno."

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Hmm. I thought this story was made into a post-Serling "Twilight Zone" episode at one point. We'll see, I guess.

Southland Tales Trailer Is Up

As Keanu Reeves would say, '"Whoa". It'll either be a wild ride, or rend itself apart through sheer ambition. Take a tiny peek inside Richard Kelly's head here.

Southland Tales Poster Arrives

I'm still curious about this film (mainly because I like Donnie Darko), but I'm getting more and more wary, since it's been in post-shoot-tinkering-limbo for two years. In the meantime, I read the comic books prequels, but I had a really tough time following them. I guess we'll find out on November 9th, when the film's released.

Thanks to I Watch Stuff for the poster image!

Donnie Darko Director's New Project

VARIETY: Cameron Diaz to star in 'The Box'
Richard Kelly to direct horror film
By MICHAEL FLEMING
Posted: Thurs., Jun. 28, 2007, 1:24pm PT

Media Rights Capital has set Cameron Diaz to star in "The Box," a horror film to be directed by "Donnie Darko" helmer Richard Kelly.

Kelly wrote the script based on Richard Matheson short story "Button, Button." Production will begin in the fall on the pic, which will aim for a PG-13 rating. Diaz will play a young woman given a mysterious box by a stranger. She's told that certain things will happen depending on which buttons she presses.

Media Rights Capital is committed to bankrolling the entire $30 million-plus budget, as it did with "Babel" and will with Sacha Baron Cohen's "Bruno."

Kelly and Sean McKittrick will produce and Ted Hamm will be executive producer.

Media Rights Capital won't begin the process of pursuing distribution until the fall, though it is unclear when those deals will be made.

MRC, which pays star salaries along with partial copyright ownership that gives talent a DVD windfall, has shown a knack for making distribution deals at the most advantageous time. That's the model it used with Universal on "Bruno," which sold during the height of "Borat" mania and secured a $42.5 million commitment to license rights in North America and certain other territories.

The recent $20 million opening of "1408" made the star-driven, high-concept supernatural thriller "The Box" feel like a viable financial proposition.

"The storyline has all the commerciality of 'The Ring,' but with Richard and Cameron, this film can rise to the level of 'Rosemary's Baby' and 'The Others,' " said Modi Wiczyk, the former Endeavor agent who founded and runs MRC with Asif Satchu.

"My hope is to make a film that is incredibly suspenseful and broadly commercial, while still retaining my artistic sensibility," Kelly said.

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Huh. What happened to "Southland Tales"? I haven't heard anything about it in quite a while. The last I heard, it was going to come out this fall, but it's been pretty quiet. I've also heard that it wasn't very good, and the silence is a little ominous. But I'm still really curious to see it!

I think "The Box" was also done as a post-Serling "Twilight Zone" episode. Still, Matheson's a good place to start for a movie...