Filmmaker and screenwriter Richard Kelly has had something of a rocky road since bursting onto the independent film scene in 2001 with the at first underrated and then grossly overrated “Donnie Darko.” After “Darko,” Kelly returned five years later with a very confused all-star cast for the bizarre and at times incomprehensible “Southland Tales.” Even though “Tales” was financial and critical disaster, Warner Bros. gave Kelly a chance to redeem himself with “The Box,” a film that could have benefited more from an art house style release campaign instead of a big nationwide rollout. Now, Kelly’s production company, Darko Entertainment, has announced that the filmmaker will write and direct the new drama “Corpus Christi.”
According to Darko, the independently financed film will center on an Iraq war veteran, Paciencia “Patience” De La Rosa, who forms a peculiar relationship with his boss, a wealthy supermarket chain owner who has political ambitions outside the frozen food aisle. The film is currently in the middle of the casting process and hopes to announce the picture’s stars in March. Production should begin this July in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Darko has also produced the critically acclaimed “World’s Greatest Dad” with Robin Williams and the critically dispised “I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell.” The company is currently developing a big screen adaptation of “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” with Natalie Portman’s shingle handsomecharlie for Lionsgate.