Richard Kelly, the writer-director behind the 2001 sci-fi cult classic Donnie Darko, is set to revisit the film's complex narrative with a sequel book. Titled "The Philosophy of Time Travel," the approximately 800-page novel will be published later this year by Range Literary Publishing, coinciding with the film's 25th anniversary.
The book will pick up 14 months after the events of the original film and Donnie's death. The story will be presented through found documents, including material written from the perspectives of Donnie's parents, Rose and Eddie, as they attempt to comprehend the fate of their son and the surreal events that transpired. Kelly has reportedly spent the last decade writing the book, a project he has been developing for over two decades.
Kelly originally envisioned a film sequel, but the story's scope and complexity proved challenging for cinematic adaptation. He now plans for the book to serve as the first step in a larger series of sequels. The filmmaker expressed hopes that "The Philosophy of Time Travel" could eventually be adapted into an animated or motion-capture film, followed by a live-action movie set 28 years after the original.
Donnie Darko, which stars Jake Gyllenhaal as the titular troubled teenager, initially underperformed at the box office. However, it garnered a significant following through home video releases, becoming a defining cult film of the early 2000s. The movie is currently praised with an 88% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 71 Metascore.
This is not the first attempt to expand the Donnie Darko universe. The 2009 direct-to-video film "S. Darko: A Donnie Darko Tale" focused on Donnie's younger sister, Samantha, but was produced without Kelly's involvement and received largely negative reviews, holding a 13% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes.
