Richard Kelly’s only made one movie so far (Donnie Darko), but it was one hell of a movie. His long-awaited new one, Southland Tales, got a piss-poor reception at Cannes, but it just shot to the top of my must-see list. I’ve been waiting for this one for a while, even though I knew next to nothing about it. Until, at least, this fairly mind-blowing synopsis popped up on Dark Horizons:

Set in a near-future post-apocalyptic Los Angeles, the film follows the criss-crossed destinies of an action film actor (The Rock) stricken with amnesia, an ex-porn star (Sarah Michelle Gellar) in the midst of reconverting, and twin brothers (Seann William Scott) whose destinies becomes confused with that of all mankind.

The current runtime on Tales now stands at 137 mins, a full 27 minutes shorter than the “work-in-progress” version shown to much derision at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Pretty amazing, right? Just wait until the next paragraph:

Kelly confirmed he has tightened the narrative and Justin Timberlake just recorded his final voice work last Sunday.

And then I hit the film’s IMDB page, where the rest of the cast is revealed: Mandy Moore, Cheri Oteri, Kevin Smith, Jon Lovitz (?), Wallace Shawn (?!), Amy Poehler, Christopher Lambert (yeah, the Highlander), and Janeane Garofalo. Oh, and the film has original music by Moby. Wha-huh?

My head feels like it just exploded. I love Kelly’s theatrical cut of Donnie Darko to a pretty unhealthy degree, and whatever the fuck Southland Tales is, and whether it’s derision-worthy or not, I pretty much can’t fucking wait to see it. I mean… wait. What? Who? What the fuck? Awesome! Whatever this is, it’s bizarre/intriguing as shit, and I can’t wait. Oh, and then there’s this, which I highly recommend checking out. Wait. What?