Richard Kelly Talks "The Box"

Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko), who will direct "The Box," told SCI FI Wire that the movie will be a period piece, set in 1976, around the time the original story was written.

"It's a six-page short story written by Richard Matheson," Kelly said in an interview. "With a six-page short story, it's just a wonderful premise that ... I'm taking and I'm expanding upon. And the film takes place in 1976, which is very near the time in which the original short story was written, so it is a period piece."

Why the 1970s? "It has to do with the concept of the film working in a more innocent, less technology-dependent world," Kelly said. "And the concept, I feel, does not work as well in the world of [the] Internet, Blackberries and constant hand-held communication and technology."

The movie stars Cameron Diaz and Frank Langella in a story about a couple who receive a mysterious box that will grant them a million dollars, but with a catch: "The catch is, somewhere, someone in the world they do not know will die," Kelly said.

Kelly is casting the film's other roles and is in preproduction. "Sets are being built," he said. "We start shooting in Boston on Nov. 17. ... Right now, the only cast that's been announced is Cameron Diaz and Frank Langella. But there will be some other announcements very shortly."