Donnie Darko (2001)
- Directed by
- Richard Kelly
- Genre
- drama film, fantasy film, comedy film, horror film, science fiction film, comedy drama
- Country
- United States
- Runtime
- 2h 14m
- Rated
- R
- Rating
- 7.8 of 10 from 13,514 voters
- Elsewhere
- IMDb
The catalogue in 3D
The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.
How it feels
A troubled teenager sleepwalks out of his house and avoids a freak accident. Afterward he starts seeing a man in a rabbit costume who says the world will end in 28 days.
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What happens
Donnie Darko is a 2001 American science fiction psychological thriller film written and directed by Richard Kelly in his directorial debut, and produced by Flower Films. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Drew Barrymore, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Mary McDonnell, Katharine Ross, Patrick Swayze, Noah Wyle, and Seth Rogen in his film debut. Set in October 1988, the film follows Donnie Darko (Gyllenhaal), a troubled teenager who inadvertently escapes a bizarre accident by sleepwalking. He has visions of Frank, a mysterious figure in a rabbit costume who informs him that the world will end in 28 days. Development began in late 1997 when Kelly had graduated from film school and started writing scripts. He took an early idea of a jet engine falling onto a house with no one knowing its origin and built the story around it. Kelly insisted on directing the film himself and struggled to secure backing from producers until 2000, when Pandora Cinema and Barrymore's Flower Films agreed to produce it on a $4.5 million budget. Filming took 28 days in the summer of 2000, mostly in California. The soundtrack features a version of the Tears for Fears song, "Mad World" covered by American musicians Gary Jules and Michael Andrews, which went to number one on the UK Singles Chart for three weeks and was the Christmas number 1 in 2003. Donnie Darko premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 19, 2001, followed by a limited theatrical release on October 26. Because the film's advertising featured a crashing plane and the September 11 attacks had occurred a month and a half before, it was scarcely advertised. This affected its box office performance and it grossed just $517,375 in its initial run. However, the film gained a cult following, and after reissues, it went on to gross $7.5 million worldwide, and earned more than $10 million in US home video sales. It was listed No. 2 in Empire's "50 Greatest Independent Films of All Time", and No. 53 in Empire's "500 Greatest Movies of All Time". Kelly released Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut in 2004. The film was adapted into a stage production in 2007 and a sequel, S. Darko, followed in 2009 without Kelly's involvement. In 2021, he announced that work on a new sequel is in progress. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)
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The Zeros (2001)- More like this film, on a shelf you can walk up to.It's the lit case on the top shelf.