The Inside Story: Director Richard Kelly Reveals Francis Ford Coppola's Hidden Hand in Shaping the Movie

Director talks about writing, financing and problems distributing Donnie Darko.

'Donnie Darko,' The Inside Story: Director Richard Kelly Reveals Francis Ford Coppola's Hidden Hand in Shaping the Movie

As the film celebrates its 15th anniversary, the director remembers, in his own words, the labryrinth journey to cult classic status and the unsung heroes (Christopher Nolan and Jason Schwartzman) who played a role.

There was one line in the script that Coppola highlighted. It was one of Drew Barrymore’s lines, that I think still is in the director’s cut of the film, where she says, “The kids have to figure it all out these days, because the parents, they don’t have a clue.” It’s when her character has been fired for teaching Watership Down — her final scene with Jake Gyllenhaal. So he circled that line of the dialogue in my script. He slid the binder down the big table and very dramatically said. “That line of dialogue, that’s what your whole movie’s about right there.” So I think he was kind of looking at me and I was barely 24 years old, and I think he was looking at me as being at the very beginning of my career, and he probably saw potential and he wanted to make sure that I didn’t screw it up. And I think he wanted me to understand that I had my whole career ahead of me, and that there was something in the script about a new generation. The first line in the script is, “I’m voting for Dukakis,” and it’s delivered by Maggie Gyllenhaal. It’s a liberal teenager confronting conservative parents and the very end of the Regan era. it’s almost like this new generation that was rejecting the war on drugs or Regan policies. And this new liberal generation was going to have to defy the older one. I think he was latching on to that and seeing me being kind of an incarnation of these teenagers. And I was Donnie basically, and I was writing this sort of rebellious piece about confronting authority. This was the year 2000, and it was seen as being a pretty provocative piece of writing at the time. We were still in the shadow of the Columbine massacre, 9/11 hadn’t happened yet, Tipper Gore was trying to get Marilyn Manson records banned.