5 Movie Clips from Writer/Director Richard Kelly’s THE BOX

Opening next Friday is writer/director Richard Kelly’s “The Box”. The movie is set around a deceptively simple moral dilemma.  An average couple is offered an opportunity to get themselves out of financial difficulty: a million dollars, in exchange for the knowledge that their acceptance of this gift will result in the death of one person somewhere in the world - someone they don’t know.  The big question is, “What will they do?”  But writer/director Richard Kelly is also asking, “What would you do?”

So to help promote the film, we’ve been provided with five clips from the movie.  If you want to stay spoiler free, I strongly suggest not watching these clips.  But if you’d like a taste of Richard Kelly’s next film, hit the jump and take a look.

Finally, hypothetically speaking…if I were to have seen “The Box”…I might say it’s infinitely better than “Southland Tales” and it’s worth checking out next week.  Hypothetically speaking of course…

Here’s the full synopsis followed by the five clips.  Once you push play, they’ll play in order.

What if someone gave you a box containing a button that, if pushed, would bring you a million dollars…but simultaneously take the life of someone you don’t know?  Would you do it?  And what would be the consequences?

The year is 1976.  Norma Lewis (CAMERON DIAZ) is a teacher at a private high school and her husband, Arthur (JAMES MARSDEN), is an engineer working at NASA.  They are, by all accounts, an average couple living a normal life in the suburbs with their young son…until a mysterious man with a horribly disfigured face appears on their doorstep (FRANK LANGELLA) and presents them with a life-altering proposition: the box.

With only 24 hours to make their choice, Norma and Arthur face a momentous moral dilemma.  They soon discover that the ramifications of this decision are beyond their control and extend far beyond their own fortune and fate.

“The Box” is based upon the classic short story “Button, Button” by Richard Matheson.  It was written for the screen and directed by Richard Kelly, whose 2001 sci-fi mystery thriller “Donnie Darko,” a cult classic, earned a Grand Jury Prize nomination at the Sundance Film Festival.  “Donnie Darko” went on to screen at film festivals around the world and brought Kelly Independent Spirit Award nominations for Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay.

“The Box” stars Cameron Diaz (”The Holiday”), James Marsden (”X-Men: The Last Stand”), Oscar nominee Frank Langella (”Frost/Nixon”), James Rebhorn (”The International”) and Holmes Osborne (television’s “Invasion.”)

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