Richard Kelly has been talking about Southland Tales, yes that film that hasn't seen the light of day since the terrible Cannes screening. He's revealed just how much work has been done to the film since then, and it sounds a hell of a lot.

Not only has there been straight editing work carried out, but there has been a lot of restructuring of scenes, re-recording of Justin Timberlake's voice-over and some ninety new visual effects added. This has reduced the film by some twenty to twenty five minutes.

According to Richard Kelly through Sci Fi Wire, he says of the poor Cannes screening:

“Usually when you have a movie, at that point you take it to Sherman Oaks and show it to a bunch of teenagers at [a test] screening. We took it to the Cannes Film Festival and showed it to the toughest audience in the world. Was that a good idea? I don't know. But it happened, and you just sort of take the best from it.”

He is also quite sure that he won't be taking Southland Tales to another Film Festival, and I think that's a shame. I'm sure the recut version will get a better response, and in fact perhaps the original will get a better response outside of Cannes.

Apparently the film is set for a release on November the 9th. I'm definitely looking forward to that, for once the bad publicity on a film has raised the interest in it as far as I can see. There's a buzz about seeing the film, not because they are expecting something really bad, but they are expecting something very different, perhaps in keeping with Donnie Darko. I think if he hadn't had made that film then the current buzz for Southland Tales would be nowhere near as much.