Sarah Thompson

Though the news strangely fell through the cracks of the internet’s ComicCon reporting, while participating in a Southland Tales panel (which apparently didn’t go so well — he couldn’t actually get his clip to play) last Friday, Richard Kelly announced what he’ll be doing once he gets done totally overhauling Tales. According to JoBlo, the director will be helming The Box, a film he seems to have cowritten with, of all people, splatter king Eli Roth. Actually, until he got too busy, the film was going to be directed by Roth; Kelly’s decision to take over was a fairly recent one.

The Box, which is based on a short story by Richard Matheson (the guy who wrote I Am Legend, soon to be a Will Smith movie), goes this way: "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." Uh ... Ok. I have no response to that. It sounds like something that could easily be done really, really badly (An attack box! With money falling out of it! Run away!), but Kelly’s good with weird things, so who knows.

If the project actually goes any further (Kelly’s already planning the shoot, so that sounds likely), we’ll bring you the details as they roll in.