Fancy the ultimate alternative Christmas experience this year? Then why not meet up with some fellow Grinches and join Arrow Films in celebrating the 15th Anniversary of Donnie Darko as they re-release the cult classic’s Director’s Cut with a special 4K restoration this December.
Screenings will start exclusively at the BFI from the 17th December and go nationwide on the 23rd December. This special re-release invites all fans to have an alternative Christmas this year and enjoy the countdown to the end of the world in the lead up to Santa’s arrival.
Arrow Films are thrilled to announce that it will release the all-time indie cult classic DONNIE DARKO (2001) into UK cinemas to celebrate its 15th Anniversary with a 4K Restoration. The original theatrical version will have an exclusive run at the BFI from the 16th December followed by a nationwide release from the 23rd December 2016. The Director’s Cut, which has been newly remastered, will also be available for screenings. The release also coincides with the 25thAnniversary of film distributor Arrow Films.
Fifteen years before Stranger Things combined science-fiction, Spielberg-ian touches and 80s nostalgia to much acclaim, Writer/Director Richard Kelly set the template and the high-water mark with his debut feature, Donnie Darko. Initially beset with distribution problems, it would slowly find its audience and emerge as arguably the first cult classic of the new millennium.
Donnie is a troubled high school student: in therapy, prone to sleepwalking and in possession of an imaginary friend, a six-foot rabbit named Frank, who tells him the world is going to end in 28 days 06 hours 42 minutes and 12 seconds. During that time he will navigate teenage life, narrowly avoid death in the form of a falling jet engine, follow Frank s maladjusted instructions and try to maintain the space-time continuum.
Described by its director as ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ as told by Philip K. Dick, Donnie Darko combines an eye-catching, eclectic cast pre-stardom Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal, heartthrob Patrick Swayze, former child star Drew Barrymore, Oscar nominees Mary McDonnell and Katharine Ross, and television favourite Noah Wyle and an evocative soundtrack of 80s classics by Echo and the Bunnymen, Tears for Fears and Duran Duran. This brand-new 4K restoration, carried out exclusively for this release by Arrow Films, allows a modern classic to finally receive the treatment it deserves.
The problem is, the director’s cut is awful. Donnie Darko is the poster child for what an editor’s job is.
Ah well, some people like to have the choice 🙂