As you probably weren’t aware, director Richard Kelly is releasing a novelized sequel to Donnie Darko this December. His 600-page doorstop, dubbed The Philosophy of Time Travel, follows Donnie’s parents through a sprawling time-travel conspiracy that reaches all the way to the White House, a significant escalation of a movie that featured a tangent into the sex lives of Smurfs. Kelly envisions the book as the start of a modern Darko-verse that he hopes will include an animated adaptation and an additional live-action sequel, though it’s unclear just who will fund those films.
Donnie Darko flopped when it hit theaters 25 years ago today, but time turned it into the cult hit of the 2000s. A memorable blend of teenage alienation, predestination riddles, and sheer weirdness, it was a remarkably confident and uncompromising debut. Precocious teenagers were practically required to debate its mysteries, while critics felt Kelly had quite the career ahead of him once he sanded down his rough edges. But we’ll get to that.
