Twenty years after Southland Tales premiered to boos at Cannes and failed at the box office, director Richard Kelly talks about the “sad” legacy of his big-budget dystopian sci-fi epic. Kelly talks about the 20th anniversary of Southland Tales in a new, honest interview. He calls the movie’s release one of Hollywood’s most famous box office bombs and celebrates its rise as a cult classic film.
The long 2006 satire, which starred Dwayne Johnson (then The Rock), Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Sean William Scott, showed a strange picture of a near-future America torn apart by energy shortages, celebrity culture, and political chaos. Southland Tales came out with a lot of hype after Kelly’s breakout hit Donnie Darko. The original cut was over three hours long. But at Cannes, it was met with harsh rejection, with Kelly saying it was “booed off the stage.”Kelly told The Hollywood Reporter, “We knew it would cause problems, but the Cannes Film Festival flop hurt.” The movie didn’t do well in theaters, making only $374,000 on a $15-20 million budget, but it has done well on streaming services and home video. Fans now call it a prophetic masterpiece that mixes graphic novels, M.I.A. songs, and absurdity from the end of the world.
Kelly, who is now 50, has mixed feelings about the Southland Tales box office bomb. “It’s sad in some ways that careers were affected, but I’m proud.” This is the movie I wanted to make. He is teasing possible re-releases and even a director’s cut for the Southland Tales 20th anniversary, which has fans of Richard Kelly buzzing.
