IO9 has published artwork from the upcoming sequel to Donnie Darko, titled S. Darko. The sequel follows Donnie's little sister (she of Sparkle Motion fame) who leaves town looking for fame and fortune, and then there's something about a meteorite, and probably a lot of weird and confusing special effects.
Daveigh Chase (perhaps better known as Rhonda Volmer on HBO's series Big Love) stars as Donnie's sister Samantha. The Darko's mother is nowhere to be found in the IMDb cast list, which isn't too surprising. She's got her hands full saving humanity from Cylons, or destroying all remaining life, or both.
Donnie Darko fans have expressed a great deal of skepticism about the sequel, and who could blame them? Any Donnie Darko fan who sat through the Director's Cut can't help but think that any further meddling or attempted extension of the original story will only ruin it.
S. Darko is being directed by Chris Fisher, who has only a small handful of credits to his name, most of which are single episodes of television show series. "Directed by the guy who directed an episode of Chuck and two episodes of Moonlight" isn't exactly the biggest confidence booster.
The original movie was both written and directed by Richard Kelly, who returns as one of two writers of S. Darko. (He is credited as the "characters" writer, while the relatively unknown Nathan Atkins is credited as the "screenplay" writer. I have no idea what that means.)
Given Kelly's commentary on the DVD, and his appallingly bad Director's Cut, I can't say that Kelly's participation inspires excitement, either. It's almost as if the original Donnie Darko was fantastic despite Richard Kelly.
