Description:
James Richard Kelly better known as Richard Kelly, is an American film director and writer, known for writing and directing the cult classic Donnie Darko in 2001. Kelly was born James Richard Kelly in Newport News, Virginia, the son of Lane and Ennis Kelly. He grew up in Midlothian, Virginia, where he attended Midlothian High School and graduated in 1993. When he was a child, his father worked for NASA on the Mars Viking Lander program. He won a scholarship to the University of Southern California to study at the USC School of Cinema-Television where he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He made two short films at USC, The Goodbye Place and Visceral Matter, before graduating in 1997.
Birthday
March 28, 1975
Born In
Newport News, Virginia, USA
Height
178 cm
Parents
Lane Kelly
Trivia
Received only $9,000 to write and direct Donnie Darko (2001) with a budget of 4.5
million dollars.
Quotes
I did a grad film but that ended up hurting me more than it helped. My grad film was this over the top, gonzo, completely absurd sci-fi thing with non- professional actors. When you have actors in their fifties who are still doing student films, you're not going to get top-of-the-line. It was a thing with a teleportation chamber, with a mad scientist and it was completely absurd. It cost $60,000, but it was completely campy, Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1988) kinda stuff, so when people looked at the short, they went, 'Well, is this how the acting is going to be in Donnie Darko (2001)? We don't think you can direct actors if that's anything to go by.' I was like, 'Give me a good actor, and I can direct.' It became really frustrating when the short came up and it gave people a reason to pass. I would recommend that if you want to do a short, then do a short that's one or two scenes from the feature you want to direct, so they can see it. They really can't think outside the box. If you want to get a feature made, I would go and scrape together whatever money you can get, find an actor who can really pull off one of the parts and shoot a few scenes from your feature screenplay that can serve as a short. That's the best evidence that you can give them. That's what Wes Anderson did with Bottle Rocket (1996), it was originally a short film. And it worked.
Nickname
RK
Salaries
$9,000
Trademarks
Frequently casts Beth Grant, Holmes Osborne, and Lisa K. Wyatt
