Donnie Darko Trivia

Donnie Darko

• Jason Schwartzman was replaced by Jake Gyllenhaal, due to Schwartzman's scheduling conflicts.
• Mark Wahlberg was also in talks to play Donnie, as was Vince Vaughn.

• Noah Wyle's character, Prof. Kenneth Monnitoff, is seen eating hard candy in some scenes because Wyle decided his character would be diabetic.
• Richard Kelly originally wanted Tim Robbins to play the part of Donnie's father.
• When casting for the role of Donnie's sister, it came to Richard Kelly's attention that Maggie Gyllenhaal (who had few film credits) would be available for the shoot. The agent who proposed Maggie Gyllenhaal's casting instantly reminded Kelly of her scene in "Cecil B. Demented", where she drank urine. Though Kelly was slightly hesitant towards the idea, he did like the way she drank urine - and knew he wouldn't have to work hard at creating a sibling rivalry with two actors of blood relation.
• Despite persistent rumors, Richard Kelly insists that none of the characters in this film are based upon USC teachers or students.

• In the scene at the house party someone is shown jumping on a trampoline with a Reagan mask on. This is taken from a photo of the journalist Hunter S. Thompson wearing a Reagan mask while jumping on a trampoline.
• In the film Donnie refers to "Married... with Children" (1987) and, more specifically, Christina Applegate during conversations about sex with his therapist. The script initially called for Donnie's fantasies to be about Alyssa Milano. This had to be changed however when Richard Kelly was denied the legal rights to reference her in this manner.
• In the beginning of the film, when Donnie is walking back home in the morning, his mother is reading Stephen King's "IT", which is about a small town tormented by the epitome of children's fears that usually goes about in the guise of a clown. Later, towards the end of the film, a character is hit by a car. The passenger gets out and is dressed like a clown.
• In the theater scene, Richard Kelly originally intended to have Donnie and Gretchen going to see C.H.U.D. (1984). However, there were problems with finding out who owned the rights to the movie. Finally, 'Sam Raimi (I)' came to the rescue, by allowing Kelly to use and distort footage from The Evil Dead (1981), free of charge.
• There's some debate over who said that "cellar door" was the most beautiful sounding phrase in the English language. In the DVD commentary, writer/director Richard Kelly says he thinks it was Edgar Allan Poe but this contradicts the dialogue in which Karen Pomeroy attributes the line to a linguist. On the other hand, J.R.R. Tolkien was a linguist, and Humphrey Carpenter tells us on page 56 of "Tolkien: A Biography" that he did make such an assertion about "cellar door".
• Richard Kelly's original choice for the music to be played over the final sequence was U2's "MLK". After difficulties obtaining the rights to the song, it was decided to use Gary Jules's cover of the Tears for Fears song "Mad World" instead.
• The dance performance in the movie is actually performed to "West End Girls" by Pet Shop Boys. Due to economic reasons the song had to replaced by Duran Duran's "Notorious" in post-production
• The B/W poster in Donnie's room (an eye reflecting a skull) is a reproduction of an etching by the artist M.C. Escher.
• The costume Donnie wears at the party at the film's end (skeleton) is the same worn by Johnny and his gang during the costume party in The Karate Kid (1984).
• Director Richard Kelly modeled the tone of the film after Stanley Kubrick's Lolita (1962). Elizabeth Darko ('Maggie Gyllenhal' ) is even dressed as Vivian Darkbloom (Marianne Stone) from Lolita at the Halloween party.

• The movie was shot in 28 days, exactly the time-span of the movie itself, and on a budget of under $5 million.
• EASTER EGG: The DVD contains several "Easter Eggs" or hidden items. Two are visible in the Philosophy of Time Travel book in the Special Features. On each of the appendix pages, press the up arrow on your remote then hit enter, for appendix A you get a deleted scene about the flooding of the school, and appendix B, a different trailer for the movie. The other Eggs are found in main menu. Once there, move the cursor to "special features" then press right on the controller to watch a special deleted scene. Note that when the rabbit head appears in white during the scene, press enter to see yet another scene.
• The original poster art for the movie had been using an Arabic-style font, but this was changed to the much more standard Times New Roman boldface font for the video release after the terrorist attacks on the USA of 11 September 2001 and the anti-Arab fervor they inspired. The title remains in the same style in the film, though.
• Newmarket films, the movie's US distributor, approached Richard Kelly about doing a "director's cut". He accepted the offer and did the re-edit with editor Sam Bauer in a swift nine days.
• Richard Kelly said that the movie had a very difficult time finding a US distributor. As the film embodied myriad genres and tones, distributors were confused by the movie's message, and how to market it. Added to this, Kelly also claims that "Darko" was very close to premiering on the Starz network, until Newmarket Films picked up the film for theatrical distribution.
• The first edit of the film ran 165 minutes. The "director's cut" is very close to the version that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, 2001.
• The Aero Theatre (where Donnie and Gretchen see "The Evil Dead") closed in 2003. It was indeed a real movie theatre, located at 1328 Montana Avenue, in Santa Monica, CA.