Donnie Drako
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Donnie Darko (2001)
Newmarket films, the movies US distributor, approached Richard Kelly about doing a directors cut. He accepted the offer and did the re-edit with editor Sam Bauer in a swift nine days.
Richard Kelly said that the movie had a very difficult time finding a US distributor. Since the film embodied myriad genres and tones, distributors were confused by the movies message, and how to market it. Additionally, Kelly also claims that “Darko” was very close to premiering on the Starz network until Newmarket Films picked up the film for theatrical distribution.
Despite persistent rumors, Richard Kelly insists that none of the characters in this film are based upon USC teachers or students.
The movie was shot in 28 days, exactly the time-span of the movie itself, on a budget of under US$5 million.
In the beginning of the film, when Donnie is walking back home in the morning, his mother is reading Stephen Kings It (1990) (TV), which is about a small town tormented by a demon that disguises itself the guise of a clown. Later, towards the end of “Donnie,” a character is hit by a car. The passenger of the car gets out and is dressed like a clown.
In the scene at the house party someone is shown jumping on a trampoline, wearing a Ronald Reagan mask. This is taken from a photo of the journalist Hunter S. Thompson wearing a Reagan mask while jumping on a trampoline.
In the film Donnie refers to “Married with Children” (1987) and, more specifically, Christina Applegate during conversations about sex with his therapist. The script initially called for Donnies fantasies to be about Alyssa Milano. This had to be changed however when Richard Kelly was denied the legal rights to reference her in this manner.
In the theater scene, Richard Kelly originally intended to have Donnie and Gretchen going to see C.H.U.D. (1984). However, there were problems with finding out who owned the rights to the movie. Finally, Sam Raimi came to the rescue by allowing Kelly to use and distort footage from The Evil Dead (1981), free of charge.
Theres some debate over who said that “cellar door” was the most beautiful sounding phrase in the English language. In the DVD commentary, writer/director Richard Kelly says he thinks it was Edgar Allan Poe, but this contradicts the dialogue in which Karen Pomeroy attributes the line to a linguist. On the other hand, J.R.R. Tolkien was a linguist, and Humphrey Carpenter tells us that on page 56 of “Tolkien: A Biography” he did make such an assertion about the phrase “cellar door.”
Noah Wyles character, Prof. Kenneth Monnitoff, is seen eating hard candy in some scenes because Wyle decided his character would be diabetic.
Richard Kellys original choice for the music to be played over the final sequence was U2s “MLK.” After difficulties obtaining the rights to the song, it was decided to use Gary Juless cover of the Tears for Fears song “Mad World” instead.
The dance performance in the movie is actually performed to “West End Girls” by the Pet Shop Boys (Neil Tennant & Chris