Donnie Darko Meets Richard Matheson

“Donnie Darko” director Richard Kelly has adapted one of science fiction’s more memorable concepts, turning Richard Matheson‘s 1970 short story “”Button, Button” into a full-length thriller.

Entitled “The Box,” the film stars Cameron Diaz and James Marsden, and comes out October 30th. In an interview with the director, SciFiWire outlines the film’s premise: a young couple could receive one million dollars at the push of a button, but if they accept, someone they don’t know will die.

Here’s an explanation from Kelly, taken from the interview: “Can they survive this? Can they uncover the truth, and can they redeem themselves and save themselves, perhaps? For me, that became the jumping-off point … It felt like it could be the first act of an entire film, and it felt like something that was sort of asking to be resolved, in my mind. But resolved in a way that hopefully was still very faithful to the spirit of what I believe that Matheson was kind of trying to say in a nutshell: … that the pushing of the button, … it’s the key to the downfall of man.”

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