The horror, the horror. Well, that was the reaction of critics to Richard Kelly's last film (boom boom!) the still-unreleased Southland Tales, so now he's decided to embrace that reaction and make a real horror movie, The Box, with Cameron Diaz set to star.
The film's based on a short story, and later Twlight Zone episode, by Richard "I Am Legend" Matheson. It's about a cash-strapped couple who are given a box with a button on, and told that if they press it they'll receive $200,000 but someone they've never met will die. The new film is a little different - Diaz' character is given the box by a stranger and told that different things will happen according to which of several different buttons she presses. So maybe by pressing one button she gets a puppy, but by pressing another she ends all life on Earth. Dilemna!
"My hope is to make a film that is incredibly suspenseful and broadly commercial, while still retaining my artistic sensibility," said Kelly, who's also adapting the script. The producers, meanwhile, think it has the commercial appeal of The Ring and the artistic flair of Rosemary's Baby and The Others. But then, producers usually feel that their film is the most commercial and artistic film in years, so that's to be taken with a pinch of salt.
In the meantime, Diaz had better leave off the excellent comic timing and start practicing her horrified face - looking at pictures of Justin Timberlake with Jessica Biel might help - while Kelly gets on with the important work of picking the perfect soundtrack. Surely the Sugababes' 'Push The Button' is the obvious theme tune?
And please note, dear readers, that we completely avoided the obvious "Cameron's box" jokes for that entire story.