Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly wants to release a third cut of the film

25 years after Donnie Darko first arrived in theaters, writer/director Richard Kelly still isn’t completely satisfied with either existing version of his cult classic. Kelly recently revealed that he hopes to eventually release a third cut of Donnie Darko, and surprisingly, the filmmaker says this new version would lean more toward the original theatrical cut than the divisive 2004 Director’s Cut.

During a Reddit AMA, Kelly was asked which version of Donnie Darko he prefers. His answer suggests that the story’s evolution over the past quarter-century has changed how he views the two existing cuts.

“I am not satisfied with either version, honestly. The Director’s Cut was meant to lay the groundwork for the much bigger universe explored in my sequel. If there is a third version of the film it would lean closer to the Theatrical Cut now that I have written the sequel novel…”

That sequel novel is a major part of Kelly’s current plans for the Donnie Darko universe, and it could ultimately lead to much more than just another version of the original film.

Richard Kelly wants a third Donnie Darko cut

The original theatrical version of Donnie Darko was released in October 2001 and gradually became one of the most popular cult movies of its era. The film initially struggled at the box office, but its audience grew through midnight screenings, word of mouth, and its eventual international success.

In 2004, Kelly released Donnie Darko: The Director’s Cut, adding approximately 20 minutes of footage while making other changes to the movie’s presentation. The extended version added deleted scenes, visual effects, and passages from Roberta Sparrow’s The Philosophy of Time Travel, the fictional book that provides much of the mythology.

The Director’s Cut remains divisive among Donnie Darko fans. JoBlo’s own Jake Dee argued that the original theatrical version is superior because the Director’s Cut sacrifices much of the mystery and ambiguity that made the movie so compelling. The extended version provides additional explanations for the film’s strange events, while its use of Sparrow’s book and additional visual imagery makes some of the movie’s previously enigmatic concepts more explicit.

Personally, I loved the theatrical cut and felt that the Director’s Cut ruined the movie.

The third cut would restore The Killing Moon to the opening

The Director’s Cut also famously changed the soundtrack. The original movie opens with Echo & the Bunnymen’s “The Killing Moon,” while the Director’s Cut replaces it with INXS’ “Never Tear Us Apart.” “The Killing Moon” is subsequently moved to the Halloween party sequence. Kelly said the third cut would reverse that change.

“If there is a third version of Donnie Darko… I plan to use Echo and the Bunnymen twice. At the opening… and then again at the party sequence (the way it is used in the DC.) The film was choreographed with INXS as the opening song… so I at least wanted people to have a version of the film with it there.”

Donnie Darko‘s sequel novel is the next step

Kelly has spent years working on an approximately 800-page sequel novel titled The Philosophy of Time Travel, which serves as a direct continuation of Donnie Darko. The book is set in the aftermath of the original movie and begins in 1988, following Donnie’s death. The story is presented in a found-document style involving Donnie’s parents, Rose and Eddie Darko, as they attempt to understand what happened to their son and investigate the strange circumstances surrounding his death.

The novel is expected to be released in the fourth quarter of 2026, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of Donnie Darko.

Richard Kelly has bigger Donnie Darko plans

The sequel novel is intended to be the beginning of a much larger continuation of the Donnie Darko story. Kelly previously told Variety,

“I’ve kept in touch with all the cast over the years. I’m fairly certain they’re aware that I’ve been working on all this stuff, everything, and the sequel is so big that this book starts off in the 14 months after Donnie’s death, and then there is much more narrative material that I’ve been developing where the time jumps 28 years into the future, and there’s a lot of really exciting stuff that happens starting around 2015/2016 and onward after that, so that’s where I started with the sequel. This section of the sequel would be animation and then, in theory, should it happen, there would be a gigantic time jump of 28 years or so, and where the actors, should they want to play their roles live and in the flesh, that would be wonderful, too. So we’ll see what happens.”

What is Donnie Darko about?

Released in 2001, Donnie Darko has the following synopsis:

During the presidential election of 1988, a teenager named Donnie Darko sleepwalks out of his house one night and sees a giant, demonic-looking rabbit named Frank, who tells him the world will end in 28 days. When Donnie returns home, he finds that a jet engine has crashed into his bedroom. Is Donnie living in a parallel universe, is he suffering from mental illness – or will the world really end?

Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Donnie Darko himself and is joined in the cast by Jena Malone, Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Duval, Drew Barrymore, Mary McDonnell, Katharine Ross, Patrick Swayze, Noah Wyle, Holmes Osborne, Daveigh Chase, Jolene Purdy, Seth Rogen, and Beth Grant.

Will Richard Kelly actually make Donnie Darko 3?

For now, the third cut of Donnie Darko and the potential cinematic sequel remain hopes rather than completed projects. Would you like to see them happen? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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