Mandy Moore Has Something to Say About 'Southland Tales'

Last week, I brought you news of director Richard Kelly's new movie, The Box with Cameron Diaz. In my report, I mentioned Southland Tales, Kelly's follow-up to the cult classic Donnie Darko. Tales premiered last year at Cannes, to largely negative reviews (like James'). But Darko nuts like myself are still dying to see the thing. As of last week, things weren't looking good, with the release not scheduled until March 2008. And now we've got more bad news. Southland co-star Mandy Moore is telling Sci-Fi Wire she doesn't know what's going on with the film, she hasn't seen any of it, and she doesn't even know if she's still in the thing! "I have not seen any incarnation of that yet," says Moore. "I had a great time working on it. It was one of those things where I met with Richard maybe two weeks before they started shooting. I had just finished that movie American Dreamz at the time, so I was like, 'Um, yeah, sure, I'll jump into this one. Why not?' I play The Rock's wife in the movie, if I'm still in the movie at all. They had to cut it down so much, and maybe they just cut out my character altogether."

Moore adds, "I loved working with Rock or Dwayne; I'm not sure what he prefers to be called now. Sarah Michelle Gellar was in the movie. It was just a fun, huge, gigantic cast of characters there. I'm not in the sci-fi element of it, and I don't get to sing." She mentions the singing because the film, at least in its Cannes inception, contained musical numbers. You see, it's a comedy musical sci-fi thriller, with elements of political satire (now maybe you're seeing why it's something of a tough sell). In addition to The Rock and Gellar, Moore is (or isn't) part of an extremely eclectic cast that includes Seann William Scott, Cheri Oteri, Miranda Richardson, Jon Lovitz, Kevin Smith, Amy Poehler, and fellow pop star Justin Timberlake. In reading up on the film, I realized it takes place in the very near future -- on July 4, 2008 to be exact. They pretty much have to get the movie out by then, don't they? Otherwise we'll be watching a movie about the future that's set in the past! Why don't they release it tomorrow, so we can watch it exactly one year from when it's supposed to take place? That'd be cool, no? Somebody get me Joe Hollywood on the phone!