5 Promising Directors From The 2000s (Who've Sucked Since Their Debut)

5. Richard Kelly

The Debut - Donnie Darko (2001), Subsequent Films - Southland Tales (2006), The Box (2009)

Donnie Darko was one of the first 'cult' films to gain a sizable underground following on the internet following an uneventful cinema run. Rather difficult to follow the first time around, it depicts the troubled titular character (Jake Gyllenhaal) attempt to understand his prophetic visions of the end of the world.

Doubling as a social commentary, with subjects such as conformity, mental health and hypocrisy examined as Donnie spends his final four weeks developing a relationship with Gretchen (Jena Malone), Darko is a dark story, and Gary Jules' chilling and serene rendition of Tears For Fears' Mad World that plays over the end credits is a perfect fit for its themes.

It would be five years before Kelly would release another film, but The Southland Tales, made long before having The Rock as your star became a surefire guarantee of success, sank without trace after a poor reception at Cannes and made back just 2% of its budget.

The Box was the final straw, doing little with an interesting concept (offering somebody financial reward if they allow somebody they do not know to die in return) that had previously been explored on The Twilight Zone.

Kelly has been almost silent in the decade since, though he has expressed interest in doing a follow-up to his one and only hit (ignoring the fact that a godawful one was already made without his involvement in 2009).