I hate to spread totally speculative bad buzz, but if any advance development merits the term "not a good sign," it's a movie getting its release date pushed back seven months to early September, the year's most notorious dumping ground. Yep -- Richard Kelly's The Box is now scheduled to be released by Warner Bros. on September 11, 2009.

Now, to be clear, its original February release date wasn't exactly a plum spot either. But occasionally something sneaks through early in the year -- think Cloverfield. The few weeks around Labor Day are where movies go to die. The only recent exception I can think of is 3:10 to Yuma.

I'm hoping against hope that the switch isn't actually a vote of no confidence, since a Twilight Zone-style sci-fi film from the director of Donnie Darko sounds fantastic. If it is a low-confidence move, I'm hoping it's a case of a studio not knowing a good movie from a hole in the wall. That happens a fair amount, don't you know. Richard Kelly could use a boost after Southland Tales sank last year.

The Box is about a suburban couple who receive a mysterious wooden box with a single button. The box comes with a promise that if one of them presses the button in the next 24 hours, they will get a million dollars -- but somewhere in the world, someone will die. The film stars James Marsden, Cameron Diaz and Frank Langella.

[hat tip: Cinema Blend]

I guess members of Arcade Fire like to keep an eye on their online reputation, because it took a total of eight days for the band to reduce a popular rumor to rubble. A little over a week ago, Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko) had posted that, "a very famous band who is honoring us with being the first filmmakers they've ever scored a film with" had signed up to score his upcoming thriller, The Box. Before you knew it, Pitchfork had picked up the story and was reporting that Arcade Fire was that "famous band".

Cut to one week later and Arcade's co-founder, Win Butler, posted the following message on his blog (through the band's official site): "Arcade Fire is NOT doing the soundtrack to any film. We are all off for the summer, writing songs, reading books and keeping our plants alive" -- although he did concede that he might compose some original music for the film along with band mate Owen Pallet (Final Fantasy).

The Box takes place in 1976, where an unhappily married couple (Cameron Diaz and James Marsden) receive a mysterious box from a stranger (Frank Langella). The box will reward the couple with a massive payday, but only on the condition that a complete stranger dies in return. Erik gave us the heads up on some production photos back in February, but so far there is no release date. Hopefully the 'stink' of Southland Tales has finally worn off, and Kelly will be able to secure an official date soon.

Courtesy of the folks over at Variety, there's news on three new flicks headed our way by the folks over at Warner Brothers. These puppies are coming our way for the company to "ensure not only that their unique visions will be fully realized, but also that the success of their work will be rewarded as stakeholders in their own films." That's a sweat deal, if these are successful, which is a decent possibility since they're all well-known. Here are the lucky films:

1. Richard Kelly's The Box -- News of the feature geared up a year ago, back when some still had hope for the mess that is Southland Tales. Since then, Cameron Diaz signed on, as did Frank Langella, and finally James Marsden. I wonder if any of them are nervous about the film now? I guess we'll all have to wait and see. The film is about "an unhappily married couple who receive a box from a stranger (Langella) who tells them that if they push a button on the box, they'll receive a hefty amount of cash -- and someone they don't know will die."

2. Ricky Gervais' This Side of Truth -- We first heard word of this sweet feature back in September, and since then, the lucky goat cast Jennifer Garner to be the object of his woo. The premise sounds pretty perfect for the Brit, who co-wrote the script with Matthew Robinson. It's about a man in a world where no one lies. Then he tells the first one and harnesses the all-mighty power of lying to nab women out of his league and find professional success -- a role obviously to be played by Ricky himself.

3. Robert Rodriguez's Shorts -- Written by the man himself, and to be directed by him as well of course, it's about... Well, you tell me. News surrounding the filmmaker has focused on him, Rose, and Barbarella. Searching for him and "shorts" doesn't get one very far, so if anyone has word on it, please comment below!

Oh, how I used to wish for a future with funky, memorable, wonderful, and cultish Richard Kelly movies for years to come. Unfortunately, I've lost my faith. I loved Donnie Darko -- it was random, entertaining, and it merged actors from all different periods of my moviegoing life. Then I saw the director's cut, which was too over-explained for me, although I'm still eternally grateful for the Darkomentary. Now Southland Tales. I waited ages for that sucker, checking the ultra-vague website often; waiting. Then it came out to boos, got revamped, and now I'm hearing from some sources that it didn't help.

My future Kelly hopes seem dashed, but even after the flop that was Domino, and the Southland troubles, Kelly is gearing up for his third feature, The Box. Cameron Diaz signed on to star in June, then Frank Langella joined her in October. Now The Hollywood Reporter has posted that James Marsden is in final negotiations to play Diaz's husband in the horror film. The film is about: "an unhappily married couple who receive a box from a stranger (Langella) who tells them that if they push a button on the box, they'll receive a hefty amount of cash -- and someone they don't know will die." If it was as simple as that, there wouldn't be a movie, so I imagine those cash-givers are tricky and will make it someone connected to a future boss, family member, or something to throw a wrench in their already-crappy lives.

When you first movie is a cult sensation and your second movie is ... troubled, it's best to have a third project waiting in the wings. Fortunately for Donnie Darko and Southland Tales director Richard Kelly, that third flick is -- after a long gestation period -- finally coming together. According to Variety, veteran character actor Frank Langella will be joining Cameron Diaz in the horror film The Box. The trade paper says Langella will play "a stranger who presents a mysterious box to a woman." How's that for a killer role?

But Variety also reminds us that The Box is based on an old Richard Matheson story called Button, Button. (The basic premise is this: You're given a magical box and if you press the button, you become rich -- but a total stranger will die. You may remember this story from an episode of the "new" Twilight Zone that ran in the late '80s.) Although Eli Roth used to be connected to this project (as a writer, I believe), it now looks like it's Kelly's show all the way. When Cinematical interviewed Kelly at Fantastic Fest, he had this to say regarding The Box: "But my next movie is a psychological thriller, it's PG-13, has a mainstream concept, and it's something the studio is much more comfortable in committing to right away, telling us they'll put it on 2500 screens." So it's a horror film, but we're talking Vacancy 1408 horror here. In addition to directing, he'll be adapting the Matheson story. Production gets underway in the middle of next month.

And just in case you forgot, another Matheson adaptation -- I Am Legend -- hits theaters in December.

It's just about time to see if Richard Kelly's Southland Tales was made into anything worth seeing. As we all know by now, the Cannes crowd hated it when it was first screened, damage control claimed that it was unfinished, and Kelly then re-edited it into the version that will be released on November 9. Now the filmmaker is focusing on work beyond the Tales, and Variety is reporting that he has joined his producing partner Sean McKittrick and financier Ted Hamm to form his own production company -- Darko Entertainment. The company plans to back "modestly-budgeted, director-driven films."

The first film listed under the banner is Kelly's Tales, while the first movie to start production under Darko is a flick called Dirty Girl, which will be helmed by Abe Sylvia. After that is The Box -- Kelly's psychological thriller that stars Cameron Diaz. McKittrick says: "Our goal is to get behind filmmakers with unique voices and take advantage of the Darko brand to help independent films reach a much wider audience." This begs the question: will Kelly's future work not have the surprising, mood-changing edits, since they want to help unique voices? He got to where he is right now because of the huge edits on Donnie Darko, and I doubt the film would've been half as big if our first serving of Darko was the Director's Cut.

Donnie Darko fans (I'm a big one) have been waiting impatiently for director Richard Kelly's follow-up, Southland Tales, to finally get a release. Don't hold your breath -- it's currently slated on imdb for March 2008! Also not exactly inspiring confidence is the fact that today brings an announcement about Kelly's upcoming project that doesn't even mention Southland! Cameron Diaz is set to star in Kelly's The Box, an adaptation of the Richard Matheson story "Button Button." The script will be written by Kelly. The announcement states that the film will be "a PG-13 horror film," and I'm guessing that the strange mention of the MPAA rating before the film even begins production has a lot to do with the recent uproar over horror violence. The article states that the $20 million opening of the (PG-13) Stephen King adaptation 1408 "made the star-driven high concept supernatural thriller The Box feel like a viable financial proposition.

In the film, Diaz will play "a young woman who is given a mysterious box by a stranger. She's told that certain things will happen depending on which buttons she presses." They might want to work on getting a more exciting description for this one! This all fills me with mixed emotions. I love Donnie Darko, and I want to see Kelly succeed, but Cameron Diaz? I like Diaz in comedies -- I even like her guttural horse laugh. But in dramas -- yikes. The thought of her trying to convincingly convey fear makes me more than a little skeptical. Kelly feels more confident than I do, saying rather robotically, "My hope is to make a film that is incredibly suspenseful and broadly commercial, while still retaining my artistic sensibility. I am especially excited to be working with Cameron Diaz, an actress I have always admired." Production on The Box begins this fall, expect to see Southland Tales ... some time before the end of the world.

He may not be that great a director, but Barry Sonnenfeld is good enough for comedic sci-fi/fantasy fare like the Men in Black and Addams Family movies. When he doesn't have cool production design or special effects to fall back on, he tends to deliver worthless titles like Big Trouble and RV. Of course, he has exceptions: Wild Wild West was an awful effects-driven pic and Get Shorty was a great film without any fantastic elements. Still, we must be thankful that his next project deals with the supernatural. Based on the myth of Pandora's Box, the movie is simply titled The Box, and is about a directionless college graduate who is tricked into opening the infamous container, unleashing the evil out unto the world.

The script is being written by Evan Spiliotopoulos, who penned Pooh's Heffalump Movie (as well as its direct-to-video Halloween-set sequel) and has worked on scripts for other animated pics, including The Jungle Book 2, Tarzan II and Lion King 1½. For the future he's also written an animated version of The Nutty Professor, which features the voice of Jerry Lewis rather than Eddie Murphy, and the animated sci-fi film Terra. Although The Box will be a live-action "summer event film", it is likely to have a lot of the same family-friendliness as his 'toon work (though he also wrote the erotic thriller, Bare Witness). Let's just hope it is isn't as childish as The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, which is also a modern version of the Pandora myth, or as silly as Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, which deals with the box as a threatening archaeological find. It is surprising that there hasn't been a great update of the myth, actually. The Box won't be it; but it should at least be as entertaining as any Sonnenfeld effort. The director is still currently linked to the Zach Braff-co-scripted Andrew Harry's Meadow as his next project, but The Box could be his first priority, as 20th Century Fox is fast-tracking its production.

A few months back we all found it pretty juicy (if perhaps a little unfair) when Richard Kelly's Southland Tales was met by cascades of displeasure after it unspooled at the Cannes film festival -- but according to the filmmaker's MySpace blog, the final product has been locked, only he chose to lop 27 minutes off of the flick for Sony's theatrical release. (The new version will run 157 minutes.) Aside from some final voice-over and special effects work, the movie is entirely ready for mass consumption, and Kelly promises a trailer / release date announcement sometime soon.

For those with short memory spans, Southland Tales is the sophomore effort from the director of Donnie Darko -- and from what I've read the movie is sort of beyond description. One thing we know for sure is that the ensemble case (which includes names like Seann William Scott, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mandy Moore, Cheri Oteri, Miranda Richardson, Jon Lovitz, John Larqouette, Kevin Smith and The Rock) could make for a fairly ... unique evening. (Check out the Rocchi Review of Southland right here!)

So what's next for Mr. Kelly once his Southland Tales has been unleashed upon the world? Looks like he's busy on pre-production with The Box, which will be a spooky movie based on a great story by Richard Matheson. Those who are anticipating another five-year waiting period from the filmmaker can rest easy: production on The Box is scheduled to begin in March.

[Thanks to BD.com for the tip!]