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Jena Malone Talks Donnie
Darko’s Director’s Cut
Richard Kelly’s
eerie science-fiction thriller, Donnie Darko, has amassed a huge
cult audience since it’s release in 2001. The film is brilliantly
original and dark. It ranks as one of the most creative movies
I’ve ever seen. Newmarket Films is re-releasing it as a
director’s cut in theaters. I’m ecstatic to see it,
but would be extremely annoyed if it wasn’t substantive
and was just a marketing scheme to extort more money from the
die-hard fans. Well my fears have been calmed and excitement level
raised. I recently interviewed Donnie Darko star, Jena Malone,
for the upcoming parochial school satire Saved. Here’s what
she had to say about the director’s cut.
Newmarket is going
to re-release Donnie Darko theatrically this summer as a Richard
Kelly’s director’s cut. That film has a huge cult
audience. Are you going to do anything for that? Is there any
more publicity?
Jena Malone:
It’s having its premiere at the Seattle Film Festival on
the 29th of May. That’s going to be the opening. It’s
opening that weekend in Seattle. We’re going to see how
we do in Seattle and I think it’s going to open up to five
more market places. Judging by that, it’s kind of a pyramid
plan, seeing how much money it makes and how many people come
re-endorse it. I’m stoked. I think it’s awesome. I
think it’s really awesome for Richard as well. He really
wanted this film to be very specific. He wrote it and shot it
exactly the way it was in the script. And to take aspects of that
out, as a director, I could see why he was frustrated. I’m
just happy for him that he could finally have his vision out there.
 They
have the DVD out. It’s still in the theaters in some markets,
like in New York. I’m sure there’s going to be a special
edition dvd. Is this like a ploy from Newmarket to illicit more
money from the hardcore fans or is there going to be actual new
stuff in the film, like twenty minutes of additional footage?
Make it worth seeing in the theater again.
Jena Malone:
For me it’s always weird seeing deleted scenes after you’ve
watched the movie and placed them in to see how they work with
everything. So, it’s kind of like the Lord of the Rings
thing where they re-release the extended version. What’s
exciting about that is being able to see the film together with
all this footage. I think that’s what we’re kind of
doing. This film, it has a very specific message, and without
the scenes he had to cut out, it was still a really good film.
He [Richard Kelly] was just like, for the hardcore fans that really
wanted to see the film I wanted to make, here. Basically I’m
going to give this to you and you can watch it on the big screen
and eat popcorn. Throw popcorn at your friends while you’re
at it. (Laughs)
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