Sarah Michelle Gellar

Starring The Rock , Seann William Scott , Sarah Michelle Gellar , Miranda Richardson , Kevin Smith , Lou Taylor Pucci , Mandy Moore , Janeane Garofalo , Jill Ritchie , Cheri Oteri , Amy Poehler , Christopher Lambert Directed by Richard Kelly

What next after Donnie Darko? Writer-director Richard Kelly’s first feature since his cult hit is an extraordinary tale set in a near-future Los Angeles

It’s fair to say 2001’s Donnie Darko was a cult classic that defined a generation, the most important US indie of the decade so far. A high school love story that slipped into time warping sci-fi complete with suggestions of madness, it launched writer-director Richard Kelly’s career and that of its star Jake Gyllenhaal.

After Donnie Darko Kelly, pursued a collaboration with Cabin Fever and Hostel director Eli Roth, but that went quiet in favour of his work on the script for Domino, directed by Tony Scott. It was a bizarre detour, but now he seems to be back on track. Not only does the Roth collaboration - The Box, an adaptation of a story by the great Richard Matheson, whose novel ’I Am Legend’ was the source for both The Last Man On Earth and The Omega Man and who wrote Duel for Spielberg - appear to be still on the cards, Kelly’s intriguing Southland Tales is currently in post-production.

It has been a long time coming. During initial preproduction in 2004, Kelly also found time to put together the director’s cut of Donnie Darko. In May 2004, Kelly was saying the start date on the film was "absolutely still planned for the summer" but casting wasn’t yet complete and the perennially problematic question of independent film financing was proving "frustrating". However, Kelly already had key cast members Sarah Michelle Gellar, Seann William Scott, Kevin Smith, Tim Blake Nelson and Jason Lee in place and was working to confirm Janeane Garofalo. Since then, Lee and Nelson have dropped out, while Dwayne ’The Rock’ Johnson, who co-starred with Scott in the fun but forgettable Welcome To The Jungle, came on board as the star. Principle shooting started in August 2005 in LA, on an estimated budget of $15 million. It’s a meagre sum compared to the amounts Hollywood studios spend, but then Kelly worked wonders on Donnie Darko’s $4.5 million.

The exact nature of the story is a closely-guarded secret, so bear with us, but the general gist of Southland Tales is - apparently - that Johnson stars as Boxer Santaraos, an action movie star who’s suffering from amnesia. His life is connected with that of porn star Krysta Now (Gellar) who is developing a reality TV show. There’s also a cop played by Scott, who, it says in an April 2005 official press release, "holds the key to a vast conspiracy". Just to complicate matters, the main stars seem to play double roles, so Johnson is also Jericho Kane and Gellar is also Krysta Kapowsky. There are themes of energy generation, law and lawlessness, race, gender and madness. The internet is controlled, the streets are under martial law and a race riot erupts.

If all that sounds a tad Philip K Dick (author of the novel upon which Blade Runner was based), you’re probably right. Kelly himself described the film as "a strange hybrid of the sensibilities of Andy Warhol and Philip K Dick." He also cited Brazil and Dr Strangelove as influences, with specific reference to Pulp Fiction saying, "My hope is to be able to capture the excitement of Tarantino’s films".

’Aintitcool.com’ ubergeek Harry Knowles has read the script but is sworn to secrecy. He has said that it "just never takes any of the expected turns - and from the three announced actors through all the others you’ll hear about - they are all radically playing way against their established personalities and types. It is a shake the pillars of heaven cool." [sic] Kevin Smith, best known as a director with a few acting turns as Silent Bob in his own comedies here plays a character called Simon Theory (or Thiery), who is a legless, wheelchair-bound veteran of the Iraq war. Smith has said the film combines elements of Pulp Fiction, The Player and Magnolia - meaning, it’s an elaborate, energetic ensemble piece.

It sounds both beguiling and ambitious. After the remarkable achievement of Donnie Darko, Southland Tales may well do a proper job of enhancing Kelly’s reputation after the disappointing tangent of Domino (let’s assume that was just a Hollywood money gig for this innovative indie filmmaker). Early on, Kelly said, "The best way I can describe it is it’s 30 per cent comedy, 30 per cent musical, 30 per cent thriller, and 10 per cent science fiction," which certainly sounds a unique formula.

Kelly is also writing a series of graphic novels - each seemingly named after a song, such as the Pixies’ ’Wave Of Mutilation’ - to be released in the run-up to the film’s arrival. The books, with art by Brett Weldele, "work in tandem with the website," according to Kelly, "creating a more epic multimedia experience for those interested in taking the plunge."

The whole endeavour does sound boggling, but it’s a fair guess that it’s dealing with an end-of-the-world type scenario. Kelly has quoted TS Elliot’s ’The Hollow Men’ to journalists: "This is the way the world ends/Not with a bang but with a whimper". With its themes of psychological, environmental and social collapse, Southland Tales sounds pertinent for our troubled times. If these issues can be dealt with the eloquence of Donnie Darko, we’re in for something special.