May 30, 2004 - During an interview with writer/director Richard Kelly in advance of the release of the Director's Cut of "Donnie Darko," Kelly provided a brief update on the progress of the script for "The Box." "The Box" will be directed by Eli Roth ("Cabin Fever"), with Kelly and Roth collaborating on the script.
In a May 2004 interview with Roth at the premiere of the Olsen Twins' feature film debut, "New York Minute," the "Cabin Fever" director confirmed the storyline for "The Box" and talked briefly about working with Kelly to bring the story to the big screen. You may wonder - as I did - what the heck Roth was doing at the premiere of Mary-Kate and Ashley's movie. Strangely enough, he was using Richard Kelly's tickets to the event. Seems Roth was the first person who sprang to mind when Kelly decided to pass on the tickets. That would naturally lead to the next question: what's the connection between "Donnie Darko" director Richard Kelly and "New York Minute?" The answer's fairly simple. Kelly's cousin did voice-over work for "New York Minute" and had tickets to the premiere. It's just a matter of connecting the dots to discover there is a logical connection between the Olsen Twins, Richard Kelly and Eli Roth. Whew, that's a relief.
Enough with the "New York Minute" stuff and on to the interview with Richard Kelly:
What's happening with "The Box?"
I’ve been struggling to get Eli the pages. It’s coming soon. Eli’s been really patient with me while I’ve been finishing the Director’s Cut. We’re actually sitting down [soon] to hopefully get the final stages of the screenplay right. We want to get it right, really out of respect for Richard Matheson and also because we really want the collaboration to be something really special and worthwhile. It’s coming – it’s coming.
When I spoke to Eli Roth, he said you were trading pages of the script, had completed 45 pages at that point, and were passing them on to him. Is that how you’re going about working on the script?
I’ve never co-written a screenplay with anyone before. It’s been sort of an interesting collaboration for me. I honestly don’t think I could do it unless I was working with the director. I’m working with Tony Scott and I’m working with Jonathan Mostow on projects, and you know, I can communicate very clearly with another director and I can collaborate on a writing level. I just don’t know how well I can collaborate with a screenwriter who isn’t the director. I’m sure that at some point, as I get more lazy with old age, that I will bring in a screenwriter and work with them, and have them write a screenplay for me because I don’t have time or, like I said, I’m too lazy. It’s been great working with Eli.
Do you two get into any arguments over what you’ve written?
No, no. It’s honesty just defining exactly what the perimeters of the story are. You’ve got to find your story. You’ve got to work your way through it, and you have to with a psychological horror film ultimately come down to what is scary and what isn’t. And what is manipulative and what is contrived. What’s honest. We just want to make sure that it’s not a phony, that it’s the real deal.
And you’re still holding off filming that until “Southland Tales” is finished?
We have the financing in place. It’s all about when Eli...I know he’s ready to go and I’m dying for him to get started. He can certainly take care of himself. I’d love to be able to be on the set, but I think right now, it’s just getting the screenplay perfect. Hopefully, we’re close (laughing).
And speaking of "Southland Tales," what happened to "Knowing?" Wasn't it supposed to be your second movie?
At some point a movie, when it all is about to come together and then something happens and it sort of falls apart - when Humpty Dumpty falls off the wall it takes a while to put him back together again. And it’s not to say that it won’t be put back together again some day, but it’s definitely on the back burner. I don’t own the screenplay or control the screenplay to that film. There are a lot of complicated business, financial, and distribution reasons why the film hit a snag. I don’t really need to get in to it other than to say I need to have a bit more clout to raise a bigger budget to be able to properly make that film. It just really wasn’t going to come together at a budget of $15 million at Fox Searchlight. It just wasn’t going to work. We couldn’t properly make the film at that budget and people just weren’t happy with the deal. I hope to be able to make that film one day, but we’ll see.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Richard Kelly Interview - "Southland Tales" and the Director's Cut of "Donnie Darko"
Interview with "Cabin Fever" Director, Eli Roth
