The Box

[MacGuffin]

Richard Kelly's next
Source: JoBlo.com

I'm not sure if this has already been posted elsewhere, but whatever the case, allow me to write it up here anyway, as DONNIE DARKO director Richard Kelly officially announced his next directing gig at the San Diego Comic Con on Friday, and it will be a film called THE BOX. At some point in the project's development, HOSTEL director Eli Roth was going to direct that movie, but since he's doing HOSTEL 2 now (and most likely, Stephen King's CELL after that), he told Kelly to take the lead, and Kelly agreed (seems like the two co-wrote the screenplay together). The film takes place in 1976 and is based on the Richard Matheson short story. According to the IMDB, the film's plotline goes something like this: "A small wooden box arrives on the doorstep of a troubled married couple, who open it and become instantly wealthy. Little do they realize that opening the box also kills someone they do not know." Sounds cool. Kelly said that he was hoping for a "change of pace" with this film, and that he would likely be filming it in his own hometown of Richmond, Virginia.

[pumba]

Cameron Diaz Playing With Richard Kelly's Box
Source: Variety
June 28, 2007


Media Rights Capital has set Cameron Diaz to star in The Box, a PG-13 horror film that will be directed by Donnie Darko helmer Richard Kelly.

Variety says that Kelly wrote the script based on a Richard Matheson short story. Production will begin in the fall.

The film will cost north of $30 million and Media Rights Capital is committed to bankroll the entire film, as it did with Babel and Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno.

Based on the Richard Matheson short story "Button, Button," the film casts Diaz as a young woman who is given a mysterious box by a stranger. She's told that certain things will happen depending on which buttons she presses.

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

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

[MacGuffin]

Cameron Diaz In A Thriller? A Look At 'The Box' That Could Change Her Career
'Donnie Darko' director Richard Kelly sets out to make an old-fashioned suspense flick with the perennially perky star.
Source: MTV

You're given a box, inside of which is a small button. Every time you press the button you get a package with a varying amount of cash — untraceable and large enough to change your life. You'll never have to work again. Owning this box is like being able to win the lottery anytime you want.

Do you press the button?

What if every time you pressed the button, someone died? It's not someone you know, or someone you would have ever met. Chances are, you might reason, this person had it coming. Maybe they deserved to die. Maybe you're not the one who did it, but you'll never know. All you know is that someone, somewhere is now dead. Do you still press the button?

More pertinently, asks director Richard Kelly — would Cameron Diaz?

"It brings up a lot of ethical questions and moral dilemmas," Kelly said of the setup for his new film, "The Box," in which Diaz will star as a married woman (and, for the first time, a mother) who receives just such a package. "I think we found kind of a classic triggering mechanism for suspense."

With her 1,000-watt smile and cockeyed grace, Diaz is a study in serendipity, an actress whose characters are always a little klutzy, a tad bumbling, and yet good things always seem to come elegantly to them in the end.

But Kelly just can't wait to wipe that smile off of Diaz's face. "I want to make audiences see her in a different way, a way they've never had a chance to before," the "Donnie Darko" director told MTV News. "I think of Kim Novak or Grace Kelly — all the great actresses who worked with Alfred Hitchcock. I'm hoping that with Cameron we can do something [similarly] special."

He's certainly got the material. Based on a short story by Richard Matheson (author of "I Am Legend"), "The Box" is an old-fashioned suspense film that Kelly calls a "psychological thriller where what's frightening lies in the unknown" — and what's frighteningly unknowable isn't the nature of the box but the nature of those who use it.

"What does the button represent?" he asked. "We push a button to elect someone or push a button to drop a bunch of bombs on a country. Ultimately, I thought it was this incredible metaphor for responsibility, free will, and cause and effect."

In that sense, he said, the box becomes a projection of our own inner demons, representing something different to each person it comes to. Which, according to Kelly, makes the movie a throwback in another sense as well.

"It's definitely an intimate film," said Kelly, who directed Justin Timberlake, Mandy Moore, Sarah Michelle Gellar and The Rock in the upcoming "Southland Tales". "It's not about gore, and it's not about a lot of blood or language or violence. It's sort of a horror or suspense film that my mother would still go see."

The short story is available online (it's about six pages long) and was previously adapted into an episode of "The Twilight Zone" in 1986. Though Kelly's ending is different, he promised the feature length version won't be an update — instead, it takes place in 1976.

"It's a film that needed to take place in the past for a lot of reasons I can't completely reveal without spoiling things, but doing it in 1976 makes it a lot simpler in a way," he contended. "In 1976 there wasn't the Internet; there weren't cell phones and Blackberrys."

The flick starts production in November in Kelly's hometown of Richmond, Virginia.

[matt35mm]

In a world of genuine ethical dilemnas, why make this movie about an imaginary box and a button?

The best answer would probably be to use that box and button as a metaphor, which Kelly does bring up.

So, then, the question becomes, why make it a stupid metaphor?  It's not that the box and button is an inherhantly stupid idea, but if it is to represent "responsibility, free will, and cause and effect," and made analogous to voting and bombing countries, if not actually in the movie then at least in the director's speeches, then it sure strikes me as stupid.

The money box that kills people brings up no real ethical question or moral dilemna.  There's a fairly clear right and wrong there.

Somehow, I suspect the writer/director of Donnie Darko isn't going to be making a philosophically serious movie here.  But it seems like he's already starting on the road to claiming it as such.

EDIT: I want to specify that I don't think the short story is necessarily stupid.  It's probably fairly neat.  I just think that the movie seems like a bad idea.

[pumba]

1976 kind of makes me giddy!

[MacGuffin]

Scott in talks to enter Kelly's Box
Source: Reelz Channel

After Southland Tales debuted to a decidedly negative reception last year at Cannes, Richard Kelly's long-awaited sophomore project was plagued by rumors that the film might never see the light of day in the U.S. Thankfully, Sony finally put the speculation to rest last month when they announced that Southland Tales will open November 9th, with a running time considerably shorter than the 180 minute behemoth screened at Cannes.

Kelly's apparent sophomore jinx hasn't done anything to sully his reputation in Hollywood. The Donnie Darko director is already hard at work on his third project, the horror flick The Box, with Cameron Diaz set to star. And now it appears like Southland Tales star Seann William Scott might be coming aboard as well.

In an exclusive interview with ReelzChannel.com, the Dukes of Hazzard  star (lest we forget) revealed yesterday that he's currently in talks to join the cast of The Box, though details have yet to be ironed out. Scott describes Kelly's third film as "interesting and weird. It's gonna be a movie that people either love or hate. And I kinda like those films."

An interesting and weird Richard Kelly film?  Imagine that.

Scott's latest movie, Mr. Woodcock, opens September 14th.

[MacGuffin]

Frank Langella to star in Kelly's 'Box'
Actor joins Cameron Diaz in horror film
Source: Variety

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."

[MacGuffin]

Kelly's Box Is '70s Piece
Source: Sci-Fi Wire

Richard Kelly—who will direct The Box, based on a short story by SF author Richard Matheson—told SCI FI Wire that the movie will be a period piece, set in 1976, around the time the original story was written.

"It's a six-page short story written by Richard Matheson," Kelly (Donnie Darko) said in an interview while promoting his upcoming epic SF movie, Southland Tales. "With a six-page short story, it's just a wonderful premise that ... I'm taking and I'm expanding upon. And the film takes place in 1976, which is very near the time in which the original short story was written, so it is a period piece."

Why the 1970s? "It has to do with the concept of the film working in a more innocent, less technology-dependent world," Kelly said. "And the concept, I feel, does not work as well in the world of [the] Internet, Blackberries and constant hand-held communication and technology."

The movie stars Cameron Diaz and Frank Langella in a story about a couple who receive a mysterious box that will grant them a million dollars, but with a catch: "The catch is, somewhere, someone in the world they do not know will die," Kelly said.

Kelly is casting the film's other roles and is in preproduction. "Sets are being built," he said. "We start shooting in Boston on Nov. 17. ... Right now, the only cast that's been announced is Cameron Diaz and Frank Langella. But there will be some other announcements very shortly."

Kelly said that he's had his eye on the story for years. "It's a very primal piece of mythology," he said. "And Matheson, I've been obsessed with the story for years, and I've been trying to figure out how to expand it into a film."

Interestingly, Kelly said he sold the movie to Sony Pictures Entertainment at the Cannes Film Festival—the very festival where Southland Tales got an early screening, to disastrous critical reception. (The movie has since been recut, with visual-effects shots added to clarify the narrative.)

"It was funny. I was at the Cannes Film Festival, on a yacht, and we finally sold the movie [The Box] to Sony," Kelly recalled. "And it our first piece of good news at the festival [laughs], and we're like, 'Hallelujah! A huge movie studio bought our movie!'"

Kelly added that he came up with a storyline to expand the slim short story. "I figured it out," he said. "I figured out how to solve it, after four years of trying to crack it, and I went home after Cannes, as we were editing, and started writing the script. I've been rewriting it ever since. And I just finished the last rewrite the day before the maybe writers' strike, and we start shooting in about three weeks." Southland Tales opens in limited release on Nov. 14.

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Marsden enwrapped in 'Box' role
Source: Hollywood Reporter

James Marsden is in final negotiations to star opposite Cameron Diaz in helmer Richard Kelly's horror film "The Box."

Marsden and Diaz will play an unhappily married couple who receive a box from a stranger who tells them that if they push a button on the box, they'll receive a hefty amount of cash -- and someone they don't know will die.

Kelly adapted the $30 million Media Rights Capital production from the Richard Matheson short story "Button, Button," first published in Playboy in 1970. Matheson adapted the story for an episode of CBS' mid-'80s revival of "The Twilight Zone."

Marsden also is in talks to appear in a cameo role in Sean Anders' comedy "Sex Drive," playing the brother of a horny teen (Josh Zuckerman) who drives cross-country to lose his virginity to a girl he meets online.

Landing the lead opposite Diaz is the latest breakthrough for Marsden, who first caught the public's attention in the "X-Men" trilogy. After roles in "Hairspray" and "Superman Returns," he nabbed the lead opposite Katherine Heigl in the upcoming romantic comedy "27 Dresses."

[MacGuffin]

Richard Kelly Talks About The Box
Source: ShockTilYouDrop

Mr. 'Donnie Darko himself,' Richard Kelly was in Los Angeles to promote his newest film, Southland Tales. The film is a wild look at a post-apocalyptic world, starring Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Seann William Scott.

The talk subtly changed to Richard's next project, the horror The Box – that stars Cameron Diaz and Frank Langella.

Richard describes the flick as trying to move away from his past styles and change it up a little. But don't worry, he's not switching it around too much. "I'm really trying to make a really, really thrilling, suspenseful, edge-of-your-seat film and there's a great fun in that for me. The Box is still in my crazy wheel house, but I'm deliberately trying to see if I can make a film that is very easy for a studio to release on 3,000 screens at once, as opposed to platforming it and waiting to see how the public digests it."

Richard couldn't give too much away from the storyline, other than to say what they main beginning of the plot is. "It's a very simple six-page short story about a married couple who receives this button unit. There's a glass dome on it, and a key that unlocks the button; if they push the button, someone they don't know in the world will die – but they'll receive this amount of money. For me, that was always this great first act for this film. And what we've been spending a lot of time engineering is what happens next – what's the payoff, what comes after that."

Cameron is playing the wife; when rumors of James Marsden getting the role of the husband came up, Richard quickly shot them down. "I can't say who's playing the husband right now, cause it's still – the deal's being ironed out. I know there's been speculation, but it's kind of been a complicated situation."

Richard starts shooting The Box on November 17th, with a 2008 release attached. Southland Tales hits theaters November 14th.

[MacGuffin]

Kelly Wraps The Box
Source: SciFi Wire

Director Richard Kelly wrote on his MySpace.com blog that he has wrapped production on The Box, his upcoming film adaptation of a Richard Matheson SF short story.

"I haven't blogged in a long time because, well, ... I've been in Boston/Virginia directing my third movie!" Kelly wrote. "And now I am back in L.A., and we have officially wrapped production on The Box."

The movie stars Cameron Diaz, James Marsden and Frank Langella in a story about a couple who receive a mysterious device that grants wishes--but at the cost of a human life.

"My editors have been working nonstop, and we are beginning to work on the visual effects, signing a composer, etc.," Kelly said. "As soon as Warner Brothers gives us a release date, I will let you know."

Kelly added that the DVD for his last movie, the apocalyptic SF movie Southland Tales, comes out March 18.

[ElPandaRoyal]

He seems to really be making this one completely inside Hollywood. Let's see how it turns out, but my guess is that's it's going to make some decent money and next he'll make another one of his strange movies in "one for me, one for them" fashion.

[Kal]

That is a good band. Too bad Kelly lost my respect when he worked 5 years in that POS SOUTHLAND.

[md]

Too bad the "Donnie Darko Dude"....

[squints]

at this point Kelly should just legally change his name to Donnie Darko

[Sleepless]

When are we gonna have a will it/won't it suck poll for this thread?