Posted on 04 April 2009 by Quaid

Hi all. Quaid here. Richard Kelly’s The Box is a movie that I’ve had on my radar for a number of months now (a year, maybe? More?), but that I haven’t heard much about in a while.

Well, now Mr. Kelly himself is updating us all with the status of the project via his MySpace page. In case you don’t know, the movie is about a couple that finds a mysterious box. With the push of a button, the box promises to deliver you $1 million. But there’s a catch (of course there is). One person (who you don’t know) somewhere in the world…will DIE!!!

This premise sounds very very contrived, but who cares. I am about the biggest Donnie Darko fan you can find, and I am one of the seven people in the world who loved the insane, off-the-wall and over-stuffed coolness of Kelly’s Southland Tales. Anything he does has me there opening day.

Here are the details:

Hello everyone,

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged (been busy completing the script for FILM #4), so I thought I’d give some facts on THE BOX, just to clarify things for people.

- WB is releasing the film on October 30, 2009. The release date has been shuffling around a bit, but this is common with studios, and everyone feels like this is the best date for the film.

- The film is completely finished. Principal photography was completed in March 2008, and it was officially delivered to WB right before Christmas 2008. A March 2009 release was briefly considered, but a Fall 2009 release was always a better fit.

- We shot in Massachusetts and Virginia. The film takes place predominantly in Virginia, 1976.

- The running time is 1 hour 55 minutes long including end credits.

- The film was digitally photographed using the Panavision Genesis camera. In my audio commentary on Tony Scott’s Domino, I mentioned that I would never shoot a 1970s period piece using a digital camera. My position on this changed when I saw David Fincher’s extraordinary Zodiac. It can be done.

- There is more than 300 visual effects shots, which required eight months of post-production. The digital work-flow of the Genesis was essential to completing these visual effects properly.

- Win Butler, Regine Chassagne (of Arcade Fire) and Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy, frequent collaborator with Arcade Fire) recorded more than 80 minutes of score for the film.

- Here is a list of artists whose songs appear in the film: GRATEFUL DEAD, DEREK & THE DOMINOS, WILSON PICKETT, THE MARSHALL TUCKER BAND, SCOTT WALKER

-The official website for the film is www.thebox-movie.com – it will unveil sometime this summer.

This is my most personal film to date, and I’m very proud of how it turned out.

So that’s an update from me.

I will continue to update you as things progress and expect more updates from our company Darko Entertainment (www.darko-entertainment.com) and our upcoming releases WORLD’S GREATEST DAD, I HOPE THEY SERVE BEER IN HELL, and ROGUES GALLERY.

RK

UPDATE – It was pointed out to me by TheGuyInThePJs below that the teaser poster for The Box can be found HERE.



