Nowadays, Dwayne Johnson is a box office sensation. He's known for working the massive budget, popcorn flicks. Success has followed the movie star, heck he broke a record for his first salary in 'The Mummy Returns', bringing in $5.5 million for the film, the most ever for an unproven actor.
His career really started to change when he went off on his own and listened to his own instincts. However, when he was making a name for himself, things were a little different, including smaller budget films as he was trying to make a name for himself.
Not only did the Richard Kelly film lose money, but it was absolutely torn to shreds following the Cannes Film Festival. Looking back, it comes as a big surprise considering the star-studded cast and those attached to the project.
'Southland Tales' Had A Studded Cast
Looking at the cast itself, it is truly hard to believe that the film ended up tanking in both reviews and at the box office.
It starts with the direction of Richard Kelly, who was a major name at the time thanks to his work on 'Donnie Darko'. The cast featured so many huge names including Dwayne Johnson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Sean William Scott, Justin Timberlake Many Moore, Jon Lovitz, Amy Poehler, and others.
Despite the fact that the film didn't do well, Richard Kelly did admit to being blown away by Dwayne Johnson from start, as he revealed with EW.
"When I met wIth Dwayne, it was just an immediate connection. He was immediately excited and open and just completely eager to take all these risks and dive into playing this role. It was just this wonderful connection. Getting to sit across from him — I think this was the very beginning of 2005 when we met — I was just blown away by his charisma.''
Despite the ensemble and connection, the film was torn to shreds at Cannes.
'Southland Tales' Tanked At The Cannes Festival
The film was plagued from the very start, as given its smaller budget, the cast and crew only had 28 days to shoot the film. In addition, when it was given the approval for Cannes, the film wasn't even ready yet.
''Well, every single day on this movie was a wild rollercoaster ride because we only had about 28 days to shoot the film. Every single day there was a crazy stunt, or a new character actor who was coming in, and all the supporting cast were entering into this crazy rollercoaster ride that was just really impossible to understand,'' the director stated.
The result was a bad one, as fans destroyed the film. It was so bad that fans actually walked out during its premiere at the festival.
Dwayne Johnson recalls the humiliation of that day alongside Indie Wire.
''They hated the movie. So just be prepared.’ But we had to be there for another three hours. So we sit down and the first question, I’ll never forget, is a journalist standing up and saying, ‘I’ve got to be honest with you, I’ve never seen so many people walking out of a movie. What was it about this movie?’”
The film brought in a measly $374,743 worldwide, off a $17 million budget. Do the math, that is not a positive return. Who knows, had the film been a little more ready, perhaps it would've been a different story.
Despite the failure, Richard Kelly was still interested in working on a sequel believe it or not.
Despite The Film's Failure, Richard Kelly Wanted A Sequel
Yes, despite the result, Richard Kelly still has aspirations for a sequel. We're not entirely sure how the cast feels about that, though we do know that the director actually wrote a screenplay for the sequel.
"'I've been working on a new screenplay. There were these three graphic novels that were published 15 years ago, when the movie came out. In the theatrical version of the film, there's animation that really alludes to the full six chapters and the events that happen prior to the movie."
"There is an opportunity for us to explore the world of his screenplay and the significance of what's happening in his screenplay, and the additional reality of what that could mean."
Kelly would further admit that he would love to work alongside Dwayne Johnson again for the film, however, he does realize that things have changed since then, especially Dwayne's asking price these days... which is not meant for smaller budget films.