Jake Gyllenhaal’s current position in the industry is worth commending. Besides bagging roles in several super hit movies and franchises including the MCU, the millionaire heartthrob has also won numerous awards within his career span. However, he wasn’t this popular until his 2001 sci-fi movie, Donnie Darko came into the spotlight, giving him his much-needed boost in the industry.
However, reports have it that the movie that immortalized him was initially rejected by Mark Wahlberg before going to Gyllenhaal. Furthermore, the fan-favorite movie director has also teased a potential threequel for the movie, claiming he is ‘discovering new things’.
Jake Gyllenhaal’s $7.5M Donnie Darko Was Initially Offered To Mark Wahlberg
While the $7.5M cult classic Donnie Darko created a legacy thanks to Jake Gyllenhaal’s spectacular performance, fans would be shocked to know that the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time star wasn’t the first choice for the movie. Instead, it was initially offered to Mark Wahlberg, among others.
However, Wahlberg apparently wanted to mold the character in his own way which was unacceptable to director Richard Kelly, judging the former’s pitching was entirely different than the latter’s creative vision of the character. Thus came the time for the Ted actor to head toward the exit and the Spider-Man: Far From Home star to enter Darko’s world. Recalling how Gyllenhaal got cast into the role, Kelly said,
“We originally had Jason Schwartzman as Donnie, but he had other commitments. We met with Vince Vaughn four times, but he wasn’t comfortable playing 16. Mark Wahlberg was in the running, too. But Jake Gyllenhaal had just starred in October Sky and carried the whole movie. Though not a household name, he clearly had talent.”
Just like that, as though it was written in his fate, Jake Gyllenhaal received the lead role in the movie that ended up immortalizing his entire career as an actor.
Donnie Darko’s World About To Be Rejuvenated With A Threequel?
Although the Jake Gyllenhaal starrer cult classic was a box-office failure, earning a mere $7.5M worldwide on a budget of $4.5M, the 2001 movie did end up winning a lot of hearts with an approval rating of 87% from Rotten Tomatoes. And now Richard Kelly is teasing a threequel of Donnie Darko in the making. Playing coy when asked about a potential third film for the series, Kelly said,
“Well, yes, but I think there’s kind of, maybe, a lot I’m not allowed to say yet because I’ve been… revisiting that world substantially. So I’ll probably be talking about it for the rest of my life [Laughs] unless someone just finally tells me to stop. But yeah: I think that there’s so much going on in these movies that, in a way, I start to discover new things. I would love to go back and do a third version of Donnie Darko with a real visual-effects budget and do some things that we could never, ever afford to do.”
Despite Kelly not revealing enough about the possible threequel, fans are super excited and hoping for another Donnie Darko movie with haunting imagery and a twisted plot that’s better than ever before.
You can watch Donnie Darko on HBO Max.
Source: MovieWeb
