Richard Kelly’s follow up to Donnie Darko, Southland Tales, received an incredibly venomous reception at the Cannes Film Festival this year – you get the impression that a video of a Chinese woman in high heels stamping on kittens would have gone over better. The film was said to be too long and boring and unfocused and generally terrible, which comes as less of a shock if you’ve seen Kelly’s tone deaf Darko Director’s Cut.
For a while there was worry that maybe the film would never even get a release – they call it getting Tidelanded, I believe – but Sony has stepped up and said that they’ll release it. There’s no word on which arm of the Sony megacorporation will handle it, but it won’t be home video, according to Sony Home Entertainment president Ben Feingold. “[I]t will be theatrical.” The when and the how are trickier, according to Feingold: “(Richard) is going to complete his edit and when we see his cut, we’ll figure out the distribution plan."
This is all good news for the people who hold out hope for the film despite almost universal revulsion at Cannes. Kelly best hurry up his edit, though – the film is set in 2008, and if he doesn’t get moving it’ll be a period piece when it comes out.