From the "People" Archives:

by Jessica Hundley

(indieWIRE/ 10.24.01) -- Attempting to pitch a black comedy/sci-fi/horror/romance about a psychologically troubled, but intellectually sharp teen who narrowly escapes death by a falling jet engine because he just happens to be chatting with a six foot rabbit who may or may not be an alien, an angel or a figment of his imagination, would be a difficult task for any filmmaker. Add to that the fact that Richard Kelly, writer and director of "Donnie Darko" (opening Friday), is a 26-year-old film school grad (USC class of 1997) who has directed only one previous short and had never before written a screenplay and you've got a young artist with a whole lot of odds against him.

Regardless, Kelly has become one of those remarkable stories of unlikely success, his persistence and belief in his project gaining him an agent, a series of disheartening pitch meetings, a fortuitous meeting with Nancy Juvoven and Drew Barrymore at Flower Films (who agreed to take on the project, with Barrymore cast in a small role), selection in the 2001 Sundance dramatic competition and finally, a distribution deal with Newmarket Films.

Recently, Richard Kelly talked to indieWIRE about how it feels to be the underdog.

indieWIRE: Start by telling me a little about you're experience at USC. Do you feel like it was a good decision or do you think that film school was a waste of time and money?

"It was pretty ridiculous there for awhile, trying to get people to let me make this movie. If I say, ŒYeah, I directed a movie,' a lot of people still think IŒm some creep who is totally full of shit."

Richard Kelly: Film school for me was absolutely worth it. I don't think it's necessary for everyone, but for me, it was absolutely necessary. I think it's what you make it and I made the most of it. It can be a worthless experience, depending on how you approach things and I really took advantage of what was there for me. And I walked away feeling like my parents got their money's worth

iW: What, exactly, was there for you? What was your most valid experience?

Kelly: I was always a movie geek growing up, but it wasn't until film school that I became aware of a lot of filmmakers that have since influenced me, like Kubrick or Truffaut, a lot the foreign filmmakers. I grew up in Virginia, weaned on Zemekis and Spielberg and Ridley Scott and that's what got me started wanting to be a filmmaker. Then USC provided a little bit broader spectrum. It was the difference between being a fan and being a student. It's always great to be both, sometimes people forget to be a fan and they just become so much the student that they lose their love for the popcorn films, which I certainly never would lose.

Going to USC was a good decision in that it also got me to LA. It's difficult to get started in this business outside of Los Angeles. I came out for college and haven't left since. I met my producer, Sean, in college; he produced my grad film and then started working for New Line. He was the only person I really knew within the industry. When I wrote "Darko," Sean was able to hook me up to an agent.

iW: Coming at the industry as not only an outsider, but as an outsider with very little experience, you obviously met a lot of resistance. Do you feel like in the end you were able to make your film because ultimately good ideas are recognized in Hollywood, despite views to the contrary?

Kelly: Definitely. As long as you've got the talent, that's what matters most. There's a lot to be gained from knowing people. But I didn't know anyone. My parents, my grandparents aren't in this industry. I knew no one. It's all about the material in the end and luckily there were a lot of people that thought my material was good and I was lead into the inner circle pretty quickly and I'm really thankful for that. Really in the end, all that matters is the material and not letting it be corrupted and not giving it away. At first, I would walk into a room with Sean and they would just start laughing, 'Who are these guys! Come back in five years when you actually have some kind of experience!' It was pretty ridiculous there for awhile, trying to get people to let me make this movie. If I say, 'Yeah, I directed a movie,' a lot of people still think I'm some creep who is totally full of shit. It's absurd to think that I've gotten to do this at this age, but I've worked really hard for it and there's nothing else that I think I can do. I have no other skills. If this writer-director thing doesn't work out I'm pretty much screwed.

iW: Tell me about getting involved with Flower Films.

Kelly: Well, originally Jason Schwartzman was involved in the project but he had to eventually back out because of another film. But his agent sent it to Flower and Nancy and Drew read it and immediately loved it. I got a meeting with them and I asked Drew if she would play the teacher and she asked if they could be involved in making this film and that was it. Once we had Flower on board we pretty much secured the financing. And everything in my life changed after that meeting.

iW: Do you feel like Hollywood is reaching another cycle of change, that the "old guard" is being replaced in some ways?

Kelly: There are a lot of really exciting independent filmmakers who are starting to take the studio system by storm and I think that that's great. You're starting to see a new crop of auteurs emerging. I think it's all about holding on to your sensibility and to your ideals and developing your material and protecting it. It's really that simple. You have to work as hard as you can to keep the system from corrupting you. It's really tough in the beginning and it's kind of a miracle that I've been able to pull this movie off. Because it's not an easy movie to sell on the page and it was not an easy movie to sell to a distributor. There was about four months there when I really had no idea what was going to happen to my movie. You work so hard on something for two years of your life and to not know what's going to happen to it is a little frightening. But in the end I couldn't be happier with Newmarket and the way that they've handled it so far. I hope it finds an audience.

iW: Were you under any pressure to change the film, given the content, in reaction to the terrorist events?

"We just need to be able to continue to tell the same kind of stores we've always wanted to tell and not let our perceptions be damaged and not shy away from provocative ideas."

Kelly: No. We did pull a couple of shots out of the trailer, shots involving a jet engine were pulled. In terms of the context of the film itself, it's a period piece. It's a dark movie that asks a lot of questions. But once the dust settled a bit and we were able to kind of regroup and think about how the movie would be affected by the events, we all felt that the movie stands on it's own. Every movie is going to be looked at differently from now on, based on what's happened and I think we just need to be able to continue to tell the same kind of stories we've always wanted to tell and not let our perceptions be damaged and not shy away from provocative ideas. Because now I think we can look at art in a way that we haven't looked at it before. The lens has changed slightly and I just hope that we continue to not shy away from provocative subject matter, because I think that's important subject matter.

iW: You did re-edit the film from it's Sundance incarnation, is that right?

Kelly: Yeah, we had barely finished in time for Sundance. We had never showed it to an audience before, so after those screenings I went back and tightened it up a bit. We pulled a couple things out. We added a couple new things. And I'm happy with what became the end result. There are always some painful things to pull out that thankfully you'll be able to put it back with the DVD. I'm really grateful to have had the time to really finish the film and Newmarket was really supportive. They understood the film and they believed in it. It's great to have that relationship with your distributor, because things can get really ugly when they don't. That's when you want to pull your hair out and leave town. I think that Newmarket had an amazing experience with "Memento." No one wanted that film, but they recognized that they had an amazing film and they didn't underestimate the audience's ability to comprehend provocative and complex stories and they reaped the reward for taking that chance. I always applaud the little guy who sticks his neck out when no one else is willing to. I think we definitely ended up at the right place.

iW: It's interesting because it seems in the film industry the "little guy" does reap the rewards and then he becomes the "big guy" and stops taking chances. Then the whole cycle starts again.

Kelly: It's true. No matter how successful or unsuccessful I am in my career I think I'll always have that underdog mentality, because ultimately I think every film I make will have that feel. If this one does well in any way or performs moderately, I would hope that it would allow me to make more of these kinds of movies. Even with big studios. I would love to be able to alternate between making big studio films and independent releases. The term independent has become murkier than ever anyway. Ultimately I would hope that all my films would continue to be independent in spirit, regardless of who's financing.