SOUTHLAND TALES

'''Southland Tales''' is a 2007 science fiction/drama film, written and directed by Richard Kelly. The title refers to the Southland, a name used by locals to refer to Southern California and Greater Los Angeles. Set in the near future, the film is a portrait of Los Angeles and a comment on the military-industrial news-tainment complex. The film features an ensemble cast headed by Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott and Sarah Michelle Gellar, and also featuring Miranda Richardson, Cheri Oteri and Justin Timberlake. Kelly's friend and fellow film director Kevin Smith, who has a cult following of his own, is also part of the ensemble cast. Original music for the film will be provided by Moby. For the first time, Johnson is not being billed under his stage name, "The Rock".
When Sony purchased the film, Kelly had to edit the running-time from 160 minutes to 137 minutes and has also gotten the greenlight for the additional round(s) of visual effects, which should take roughly 12–15 weeks to finish.
Variety (magazine) has reported Samuel Goldwyn Films in partnership with Destination Films and Sony Pictures will release Southland Tales and has listed a release date of November 9.^[1]

Contents

Plot

Production

Cast

Marketing

Release

Cannes Film Festival

Theatrical release

References

External links

Plot

El Paso and Abilene, Texas have fallen victim to twin nuclear attacks on July 4th, 2005 – a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions which sent America into war. The Patriot Act has been upgraded to a new agency known as USIdent, which keeps constant tabs on citizens – even to the extent of censoring the internet and using fingerprints in order to access computers and bank accounts. In order to be able to respond to a newfound fuel scarcity, the German company Treer designs a generator of inexhaustible energy which is propelled by ocean currents. Unbeknownst to them, the generators alter the currents and cause the Earth to to spiral out of control through space, ripping holes in the fabric of space and time.
In Los Angeles, a city on the brink of chaos, we follow the criss-crossed destinies of Boxer Santaros (Dwayne Johnson), an action film actor stricken with amnesia; Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar), ex-porn star in the midst of reconverting; and twin brothers Roland and Ronald Taverner (both played by Seann William Scott), whose destinies – on one evening – become intertwined with that of all mankind.

Production

Writer-director Richard Kelly wrote ''Southland Tales'' shortly before the September 11, 2001 attacks, and the original script involved blackmail, a porn star, and two cops. Since the attacks, Kelly revised the script. He described the update, "[The original script] was more about making fun of Hollywood. But now it's about, I hope, creating a piece of science fiction that's about a really important problem we're facing, about civil liberties and homeland security and needing to sustain both those things and balance them."^[2] In March 2004, Kelly and Cherry Road Films began development of ''Southland Tales''. Filmmakers entered negotiations with thespians Seann William Scott, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jason Lee, Janeane Garofalo, Tim Blake Nelson, Amy Poehler, Kevin Smith, and Ali Larter to be cast into the film. Filmmakers also contacted musician Moby for the possibility of composing and performing the film's score. ''Southland Tales'' was described to take place in Los Angeles in the summer of 2008, during a three-day heat wave that leads up to the 4th of July celebration. Kelly described the film, "[''Southland Tales''] will only be a musical in a post-modern sense of the word in that it is a hybrid of several genres. There will be some dancing and singing, but it will be incorporated into the story in very logical scenarios as well as fantasy dream environments." Filming was slated to begin in July 2004.^[3]
After a year, filming had not begun on ''Southland Tales''. Actor Dwayne Johnson joined the cast in April 2005, and principal photography was slated to begin August 1 2005 in Los Angeles.^[4]
Filming for ''Southland Tales'' began on August 15, 2005, with a budget of around US$15–17 million.
Kelly has stated that the film's biggest influences are ''Kiss Me Deadly'', ''Pulp Fiction'', ''Brazil'' and ''Dr. Strangelove''. He also calls it a "strange hybrid of the sensibilities of Andy Warhol and Philip K. Dick".^[5]
''Southland Tales'' premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2006 with a length of 160 minutes.^[6] After the film's festival release, ''Southland Tales'' was purchased by Sony Pictures.^[7] Kelly edited the film down to the basic storylines of the characters portrayed by Scott, Gellar, and Johnson. The director also sought to keep the musical number performed by Timberlake, based on "All These Things That I've Done" by The Killers.² Editorial changes were made to restructure the order of the film's scenes, including re-recording all of Timberlake's voice-over. The director also added 90 new visual effects shots to the film and removed 20 to 25 minutes of footage from his initial cut.^[8]

Cast

★ ''Dwayne Johnson'' as Boxer Santoros, an amnesiac action star whose life crosses paths with Krysta Now.⁴ Santoros is married to a senator's daughter.¹⁰

★ ''Seann William Scott'' as Roland Taverner/Ronald Taverner, a police officer at Hermosa Beach, California.⁴ Scott also portrays the police officer's identical twin, who is a neo-Marxist.¹⁰

★ ''Sarah Michelle Gellar'' as Krysta Now, an adult film star who is working on creating a reality TV show.⁴ Gellar, who appealed to director Richard Kelly's previous work, ''Donnie Darko'', met with Kelly and was drawn to the original ideas in his script for ''Southland Tales''.^[9]

★ ''Justin Timberlake'' as Pilot Abilene, a disfigured Iraq War veteran.² He narrates the film and also performs a musical number.^[10]

★ ''Wallace Shawn'' as Baron Von Westphalen, a villain who controls ocean waves to create a source of power.¹⁰

★ ''John Larroquette'' as a political crony.¹⁰

★ ''Jon Lovitz'' as a heavily-armed, bleach-haired villain.¹⁰

★ ''Kevin Smith'' as Simon Theory, a legless Iraqi War veteran.^[11]

Marketing

''Southland Tales'' was initially planned to be a nine-part "interactive experience", with the first six parts published in six 100-page graphic novels that would be released in a six-month period up to the film's release. The feature film comprises of the final three parts of the experience. A website was also developed to intertwine with the graphic novels and the film itself.⁴ The idea of six graphic novels was later narrowed down to three. The novels were written by Kelly and illustrated by Brett Weldele.

★ ''Part One: Two Roads Diverge'' (May 25, 2006, ISBN 093621175X)

★ ''Part Two: Fingerprints'' (September 15, 2006, ISBN 0936211768)

★ ''Part Three: The Mechanicals'' (January 31, 2007, ISBN 0936211776)
They have been collected together into one single volume:

★ ''Southland Tales: The Prelude Saga'' (360 pages, Graphitti Designs)
The titles of the parts in the movie are:

★ ''Part Four: Temptation Waits''

★ ''Part Five: Memory Gospel''

★ ''Part Six: Wave Of Mutilation''

Release

Cannes Film Festival

Along with two other American filmmakers (Sofia Coppola with ''Marie-Antoinette'' and Richard Linklater with ''Fast Food Nation''), Kelly's follow-up to ''Donnie Darko'' was in competition for the coveted Palme d'Or during 2006.
Critical reaction to the movie in its original, longer form was mostly negative. Many American critics responded unfavorably to the film's long running time and sprawling nature. ''Salon.com'' critic Andrew O'Hehir, for example, called the Cannes cut "about the biggest, ugliest mess I've ever seen."^[12] Jason Solomons in ''The Observer'' said that "''Southland Tales'' was so bad it made me wonder if [Kelly] had ever met a human being" and that ten minutes of the "sprawling, plotless, post-apocalyptic farrago" gave him the "sinking feeling that this may be one of the worst films ever presented in [Cannes] competition."^[13] A handful of the American and European critics, however, were far more positive.^[14] ''Village Voice'' critic J. Hoberman, for example, called ''Southland Tales'' "a visionary film about the end of times" comparable in recent American film only to David Lynch's acclaimed ''Mulholland Drive''.^[15]

Theatrical release

''Southland Tales'' will be released in the United States on November 9 2007 in partnership with Destination Films and Sony Pictures.
It will also be out in the UK on December 7 2007.

References

1. 'Southland Tales' opens Nov. 9
2. Goodbye ''Southland'', Goodbye
3. Cherry Road hot for Kelly's 'Tales'
4. The Rock Heads to ''Tales''
5. Southland Tales preview
6. 'Volver,' 'Southland Tales' premiere at Cannes
7. HOW THE WORLD ENDS: CONVERSATION WITH RICHARD KELLY Kelly sought more financing to finish visual effects for the film, and he negotiated a deal with Sony to cut down on the film's length in exchange for funds to complete the visual effects. EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: RICHARD KELLY (SOUTHLAND TALES)
8. Kelly Talks ''Southland'' Changes
9. Gellar Heads To ''Southland''
10. 'Southland' Imagines L.A. Apocalypse
11. Before Southland Tales
12. Beyond the Multiplex: Cannes
13. Get set for Palme Sunday
14. Links to many post-Cannes reviews, including multiple positive reviews by American, French, Spanish, Polish, and other reviewers.
15. Code Unknown

External links

'Official promotional websites'

★ ''Southland Tales'' official website

★ "USIDent" website

★ "Boxer Santaros" website

★ "Krysta Now" website

★ "Treer Products" website

★ "Official Myspace Page"
'Others'

★

★ Production notes

★ News about re-editing of the film

★ Associated Press interview with Kelly about his goals for the film