Sarah Michelle Gellar

SOUTHLAND TALES - directed by Richard KELLY - USA - 2006

Credits :

Richard KELLY Director
Richard KELLY Screenplay
Steven POSTER Cinematography
Alexander HAMMOND Set Designer
MOBY Music
Sam BAUER Film Editor

Actors :

Dwayne JOHNSON Boxer Santaros and Jericho Cane
Seann William SCOTT Roland and Ronald Taverner
Sarah Michelle GELLAR Krysta Kapowski

Synopsis :

Los Angeles, 2008: The city stands on the brink of social, economic and environmental disaster. Southland Tales is an epic story set over the course of three days that culminate in a massive 4th of July celebration. A large ensemble cast of characters includes Boxer Santaros, an action star stricken with amnesia, Krysta Now, an adult film star developing her own reality television project, and Roland Taverner, a Hermosa Beach police officer who holds the key to a vast conspiracy.

Extracts of Dialogues :

BOXER
This is an epic Los Angeles crime saga.

RONALD
And you’re researching your role? You play a cop? You wanna do a ride-along?

BOXER
Yes, exactly. But I’m also directing the film. It takes place in the near future.

RONALD
Right.

KRYSTA
Scientists are saying the future is going to be far more futuristic than they originally predicted.

BOXER
The basic concept is this... I play an LAPD cop who isn’t who he seems. He’s a paranoid schizophrenic who has a supernatural gift. He sees things and he senses a change in the city.

KRYSTA
Crime suddenly skyrockets for no apparent reason. The world is coming to an end. And he’s the only one who can see the truth.

RONALD
The truth?

BOXER
My character... he realizes that the apocalyptic crime rate is because of global deceleration. The rotation of the earth is slowing down at a rate of point zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero six miles per hour each day disrupting the chemical equilibrium in the human brain causing very irrational criminal behavior.

RONALD
Sounds neat.

Contacts & usefull links :

Production: CHERRY ROAD FILMS - 1460 Fourth Street Suite 212 Santa Monica, CA 90401 - USA kmorgan@cherryroadfilms.com - www.cherryroadfilms.com DARKO ENTERTAINMENT (ETATS-UNIS) PERSISTENT ENTERTAINMENT (ETATS-UNIS)

Distribution: PAN-EUROPEENNE EDITION - T : +33 (0)1 53 10 42 50 - distribution@pan-europeenne.com - www.pan-europeenne.com French Press: BOSSA NOVA - Michel Burstein - T : +33 (0)1 43 26 26 26 - F : +33 (0)1 43 26 26 36 - bossanova@compuserve.com - www.bossa-nova.info

International Press: MCDONALD & RUTTER - Nicki Foster, Matthew Sanders T : +44 20 7292 8330 - F : +44 20 7734 2024 nicki@mcdonaldrutter.com International Sales: WILD BUNCH - T : +33 (0)1 53 01 50 30 - avicente@exception-wb.com - www.wildbunch.biz

Competition: "Southland Tales" by Richard Kelly - 21/05/2006

With Southland Tales, presented in competition, the young American director Richard Kelly, noticed in 2001 with Donnie Darko, makes his Cannes baptism. This futuristic film evokes the city of Los Angeles, fallen victim to a nuclear attack in 2008, a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions which precipitates America into war. In order to be able to respond to the fuel scarcity, the company US-IDent designs a generator of inexhaustible energy which operates thanks to ocean currents. In this city on the brink of chaos, we follow the criss-crossed destinies of Boxer Santaros, an action film actor stricken with amnesia; Krysta Now, ex porno star in the midst of reconversion; and twin brothers Roland and Ronald Taverner, whose destinies becomes confused with that of all mankind.

"It’s a comedy about the end of the world," explains Richard Kelly. "Southland Tales explores where our country is heading and our current dilemmas as concerns alternative energy and terrorism, as well as our civil liberties which are taken away from us one by one, or even the potential effects of the degradation of the environment on human behaviour, its neurological impact and consequences on global warming."

Press Conference: "Southland Tales" - 21/05/2006

Director Richard Kelly, actors Sarah Michelle Gellar and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, as well as producer Sean McKittrick, attended the press conference today to answer questions from the journalists about Southland Tales. Highlights.

Richard Kelly on his political views of the United States: "The film is meant to be a tapestry of ideas. The biggest issues we are facing right now are security and alternate fuel, our increasing obsession with celebrity and how celebrity intertwines with politics and how they are becoming very coarsely related. We are seeing a very intricate tapestry and it isn’t simple. I think the film is meant to be experienced like a puzzle and to approach a lot of these issues with a sense of comedy. And I think you need more than one viewing to fully comprehend the intricacies of the puzzle. There is no simple solution to our dilemma right now as a country and as a planet."

Press Conference: "Southland Tales" - 21/05/2006

Director Richard Kelly, actors Sarah Michelle Gellar and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, as well as producer Sean McKittrick, attended the press conference today to answer questions from the journalists about Southland Tales. Highlights.

Richard Kelly on his political views of the United States: "The film is meant to be a tapestry of ideas. The biggest issues we are facing right now are security and alternate fuel, our increasing obsession with celebrity and how celebrity intertwines with politics and how they are becoming very coarsely related. We are seeing a very intricate tapestry and it isn’t simple. I think the film is meant to be experienced like a puzzle and to approach a lot of these issues with a sense of comedy. And I think you need more than one viewing to fully comprehend the intricacies of the puzzle. There is no simple solution to our dilemma right now as a country and as a planet."

The actors on discovering the screenplay:

Sarah Michelle Gellar: "I think it’s rare that someone presents such a full concept. Usually they’ll give you a script, and ‘Do you like it?’ and ‘Here’s my idea’. With Richard, it’s a fully interactive process and it’s not just that he comes with visual ideas, but with movies to watch, books to read and ideas. He was so collaborative. And I think a lot of times when you work with a writer/director, they’re so protective of their material. Richard’s whole idea was to do an ensemble piece. It was a wonderful learning experience."

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson: "Richard had asked to meet with me before I read it. What he presented was really hard work. I thought it was really beautiful in terms of its colour. At some point after reading the script, I realised that I had my own interpretation of it as Boxer Santaros and Jericho Cane, his alter-ego, but at some point I certainly put all my trust in Richard as a director. I had a lot of questions that I knew would unfold as the story was told."

Richard Kelly on the atmosphere of the film: "The screenplay was written over 4-5 years and over the years, it became more and more political. The movie is intended to be a patriotic piece in the sense of using comedy to try to solve some of these problems."

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson on the director: "Richard Kelly is an ambitious guy. And he writes very ambitiously as everybody who has now seen the movie knows and you know his work from Donnie Darko. I was interested in, intrigued by that sort of challenge. That type of energy that Richard has is very infectious. After reading the script, very ambitious, very daring and pretty ballsy, that intrigued me."

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson on being in Cannes: "This is a dream come true for me and I think of all actors who aspired to come here. We all recognise that there are a lot of actors out there that have tremendous careers and a lot of success and never make it to Cannes yet never have a movie that’s selected. I’m excited, I’m proud, I’m proud of what we did. It’s great; I’m thankful."

Richard Kelly on the film’s music: "It’s the spiritual centre of the film; it’s pop art, but it’s political. It’s aggressive in its confrontation and I think we need more art like that. It was very important for me to work directly with the musicians, even in pre-production. I met with Moby before we started shooting a frame of film. It is a very confrontational film: there’s vulgarity, a lot of black comedy, a lot of violence. To balance that out, it was very important to me to have this aching, heartbreaking, beating heart and that was Moby. In terms of all the pop songs, I’m very meticulous, I had Frank Black and the Pixies, a lot of British bands. We also used a lot of older musical selections, jazz from the 1950s, Louis Armstrong. We did a lot of research and found a lot of older pieces."