Donnie Darko was by and large a disturbing movie and a creepy look into the face of madness that can come when you’re least expecting it. Being told the world is going to end in 28 days is something you simply don’t think to hear when you walk out of your home on any given day. But the tidal wave of events that comes after only makes things worse as Donnie eventually starts to go mad in the worst way possible. The terror and destruction that run rampant after that have been remembered since the release of the movie, and the film itself has easily reached cult classic status.
How much do you really know about it though?
10. A lot of the credit for the movie being made goes to Drew Barrymore.
If not for Barrymore agreeing to produce the movie it might not have gotten made since the director was coming up short on anyone that would take him seriously.
9. This was the director’s first big feature film.
He was a graduate film student with only a couple of short films on his resume thus far. This was his first big feature and almost no one wanted to take a shot on him.
8. The lead role was initially going to go to Vince Vaughn.
Vaughn met with the director four times at least but finally expressed that he didn’t want the part. It might have gone off a little different if he’d said yes.
7. It was Seth Rogen’s first appearance.
You don’t ever see Seth Rogen as the bully nowadays. He’s the overgrown man-child in most of his movies now, but never the bully.
6. They had to get permission to talk about Smurf sex.
I’m not sure I’d even want to talk about carnal relations of a kid’s cartoon, but the fact that they had to get permission to do this is amusing.
5. The future blobs were something that was inspired by John Madden.
Just like Madden these were almost a play by play of what was going to happen in the near future.
4. At one point the director had to leave the set because he was laughing so hard.
During a particular scene the director was simply laughing too hard and had to be removed from the set so they could get the scene shot.
3. Donnie had fantasies about Alyssa Milano.
Unfortunately due to legal reasons those fantasies had to switch and be more about Christina Applegate, who was also known as being rather attractive in that day.
2. The movie only took 28 days to shoot.
In the film there was only 28 days until catastrophe would strike. And the film only took 28 days to make. I find this kind of amusing that they would maintain such continuity between reality and fantasy.
1. The movie had a sequel that few people know about.
The sequel focuses on Samantha Darko and is kind of an extension of the original film. The director had nothing to do with it however and went on record to state that he never would make a sequel because it would ruin the original.
So how many of these facts did you know?
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