Donnie Darko Redux (2021)

Recently I was inspired to tackle a passion project. Starting on May 8th—over the course of 10 days and totaling 19 hours—I created a new cut of Donnie Darko (2001) (my review here) in DaVinci Resolve, using footage from both the theatrical and director's cuts of the film from Arrow Video's 2017 Blu-ray release. I wish I had been able to use their recent 4K UHD as the basis of my fan edit, but I'm not quite set up in my home office to do that and output with correct color accuracy (since UHD uses HDR) just yet. As it is, the quality is still fairly high and very watchable.

For the most part, Donnie Darko Redux keeps the theatrical structure of the film intact, while incorporating the parts I like about the director's cut, but leaving out the parts that I don't (the pages of the book, the shots of Donnie's eye, etc). This IMDb page provides a good comparison of the two official cuts of the film (though it's not comprehensive), to give you an idea of what I used and what I didn't—and also to provide a guide, should you choose to watch DDR (more on that below).

This project ended up being more complex than simply cutting from one version to another, scene to scene, in my DVR timeline (pictured below) however. For example, sometimes I liked the music/score/sound design choices more in one version versus the other and/or sometimes I liked the f/x better in one version, so there were times when the video track from one version was used while the audio track from the other was used. 

There were also situations where I ran into challenges getting from one scene in one version to a scene in the other version since I only had the final video files at my disposal, which included video and audio dissolves that I couldn't edit. Sometimes I'd attempt an edit that just didn't end up working so I started over with a new approach. I didn't touch the video tracks, but I did a fair amount of fade ins and outs on the audio to blend everything and even used both audio tracks simultaneously at times. A few times I left out a single line of dialogue or a portion of scene simply because I never really felt it fit (maybe you can spot these instances).

This was truly a labor of love, with the intention to make an alternate "final" cut, if you will, that I (and hopefully some of my friends) could enjoy. DDR runs 2 hours and 9 minutes, which is 16 mins longer than the theatrical cut and 5 mins shorter than the director’s cut. I watched it last night and I'm pleased with it—I think it's virtually seamless, given the constraints. I genuinely hope you'll check it out, particularly if you're a big fan of the film like I am and have seen both official cuts before. 

If you'd like a physical copy, please reach out (either comment here on my blog or on one of my social media accounts or reach out to me directly). I can rip the 16 GB file to BD-R (Blu-ray) or compress it to DVD-R and either give you a copy next time I see you in person or mail it to you, if you provide me your address. Otherwise, if you want to watch a compressed 6 GB MKV file (playable via VLC player or a platform such as Plex), you can download it here.

Disclaimer: Donnie Darko theatrical (2001) and director's cuts (2004) are the property of Arrow Films/Pandora Cinema and I claim no ownership of the footage shown in my fan edit. Donnie Darko Redux was made as a passion project for free consumption and with no intention of profit. [ALL RIGHTS BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS]

My DaVinci Resolve timeline: