The director behind 2001’s cult hitDonnie Darko, Richard Kelly, has revealed plans to revisit the world of Jake Gyllenhaal’s warped hero, and perhaps even making a third movie. Speaking withThe Film Stage, Kelly played things coy when discussing the potential for further works set in the world ofDonnie Darko, suggesting that he has already begun work on something…
“Well, yes, but I think there’s kind of, maybe, a lot I’m not allowed to say yet because I’ve been… revisiting that world substantially. So I’ll probably be talking about it for the rest of my life [Laughs] unless someone just finally tells me to stop. But yeah: I think that there’s so much going on in these movies that, in a way, I start to discover new things.”
After expressing regret over relinquishing the rights to the firstDonnie Darko(“I surrendered ownership of that film when I was 24, going on 25, so I had no leverage. I was a WGA member when I directed that film; I was not yet a DGA member.”), Kelly declared that he would love to go back with a bigger budget and make a thirdDonnie Darkomovie.
“I would love to go back and do a third version of Donnie Darko with a real visual-effects budget and do some things that we could never, ever afford to do."
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Richard Kelly Has Wanted to Make Donnie Darko 3 for Some Time
This is not the first time that Richard Kelly hasteased development of aDonnie Darko 3. Back in 2021, the director again played things close to the chest and hinted that a lot of work on the project has already been done. “Well, I’m probably not allowed to say anything more than there has been an enormous amount of work completed,” he said. “I’m hopeful that we might get to explore that world in a very big and exciting way. But we’ll see what happens. But there has been a lot of work done. A lot of work has been done.”
Released back in 2001 and written and directed by Richard Kelly,Donnie Darkofollows Jake Gyllenhaal as the titular teenager who is informed by Frank, a mysterious figure in a rabbit costume, that the world will end in just over 28 days. Boasting a stellar performance from Gyllenhaal, haunting imagery, and the kind of twisted plot that only comes around every once in a while, Donnie Darkoquickly gained a cult following.
Donnie Darkohas since received a director’s cut, which was released in 2004, and a sequel,S. Darko, which picks up seven years after the first movie and follows Donnie’s little sister, Samantha. Sadly,S. Darkofailed by some margin to reach the heights of its predecessor and the less we say about it, the better.
Here’s hoping Kelly has something much better in mind forDonnie Darko 3.
