After wasting a lot of time watering his masterpiece Donnie Darko down with an ill-conceived, teched up Director’s Cut, Richard Kelly has finally gotten around to directing something. Described as a science-fiction thriller, it’s called Southland Tales and is set in the near future, Los Angeles 2008 to be exact. Already on board is the actress who most resembles that girl from “Life Goes On” (She’s got to be sick of being described as Buffy), Sarah Michelle Gellar as a porn star developing her own reality show, and Sean William Scott as a police officer with the keys to a conspiracy.
Sounds trippy, which is exactly what you’d want from Richard Kelly. But the big news today is that they’ve hired a wrestler, The Rock to be exact. I’ve been waiting for The Rock to have his breakout role for awhile now, but aside from a few great scenes as a gay bodyguard in Be Cool and some native crushing action in The Rundown he hasn’t had it. With an upcoming slate of films focused on par for the course crap like Spyhunter, it was starting to look like a real showcasing of his potential talent would never happen. Joining a Kelly picture could solve that. From the sounds of it, he won’t be just some background character either. Dwayne plays Boxer Santos, an action star stricken with amnesia.
According to Coming Soon Southland Tales starts shooting August 1 in Los Angeles for Cherry Films. Let’s hope Kelly doesn’t change his mind again.
