What secrets will be revealed in the director's cut of "Donnie Darko", which is expected to be a "legitimate sequel"? ? ※note! Contains spoilers.

Director's cut available

Now, back to Donnie Darko. As I mentioned in my last article , when it was released in the US in 2001, it didn't do well due to poor timing, but the DVD and VHS versions released in 2002 were a huge hit and have since gained cult popularity.

In response, Kelly was offered $290,000 to make a director's cut. He restored a large portion of the footage that had been cut from the original theatrical release, inserted text from the book "The Philosophy of Time Travel" that appears in the film, added visual effects, replaced the background music, and completed the film, " Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut ." It was released in 2004 (although it has not been released in theaters in Japan, and is only available on DVD and Blu-ray as an import).

Prior to the Director's Cut, Richard Kelly published The Donnie Darko Book in 2003. The book includes interviews about the production process, the screenplay used during the filming of Donnie Darko, stills from the film, and a dozen pages of a copy of The Philosophy of Time Travel.

"Donnie Darko" (C)2001 PANDORA INC.ALL RIGHT RESERVED

In fact, the text of "The Philosophy of Time Travel" is the key to solving the mystery of "Donnie Darko", which was said to be difficult to understand. In the next section, we will introduce the text inserted in the director's cut and interpret the story along with it (please note that the next chapter will contain spoilers).

"Philosophy of Time Travel"