Richard Kelly on working with Justin Timberlake:

"I saw Justin’s work on Saturday Night Live and I was really impressed with this guy, so I get a meeting with him; we have the same manager. Right away, it was kind of like when I met Jake [Gyllenhaal] for the first time. I thought I got to work with this guy, he’s got it. So we talked about the role and this doomsday prophet, this actor who’s been drafted and sent to Iraq and disfigured by his friend with a grenade. And now he’s perched on top on this gun-mount for political purposes and protecting his alternative fuel project. He became the narrator as the role evolved and we worked on it. Justin has this very confident nature, he’s very laid back and from the South like me. He’s a very down to Earth guy and there’s something that felt right about him being the narrator. When he talks about The Killers’ song, "All the Things I’ve Done"... in my mind it felt like the voice of a disenfranchised Iraq veteran, and I don’t know if that was the intention when The Killers wrote that song. But if you listen to the lyrics, it’s really powerful. We didn’t have the rights to the song and we just shot it anyway. Then we showed it to The Killers and their management, and they were like, ‘Okay, we love this and how much money do you have?’ We were like, ‘Ahh [cough] $40,000,’ and they said alright you can have it. It was an amazing gift and it set a precedent to get all of this other music, and they were really generous."

On the opening scene of the film:

"We shot that in Abilene, Texas at my aunt’s house and I had shoulder-operated camera the whole time; I taught them how to use the camera. We invited everyone to sign releases - all of the neighbors - and we didn’t tell them exactly what was going on. They knew that there would be a big spectacle at the end, but we didn’t let them in on the fact that the children with the camera was filming. I was hiding inside with a remote monitor and we threw the party and invited everyone. There was no crew anywhere; it was literally children walking around the entire time annoying everyone. I said to be the annoying kid with the new camera that you got for your birthday and all of that footage is authentic, and at the end we had everyone run into the street with a bullhorn. Everyone thought it was kind of cool that I manipulated the situation for authenticity. With the body blow at the beginning, we really wanted to hit the audience really hard, like, ‘Wow. what if this really happened?’ That’s the nature of the film, it’s all about post 9/11 anxiety."

Richard Kelly on pitching Southland Tales:

"Pitching it was not easy and we were lucky to have some independent financiers come in with some money, and it was very complicated putting the chunks of money together. And that’s kind of why it took so long. I’m also talking about it being part musical and having all of this digital surveillance footage and multiple monitors with multiple screens and a big blimp flying over L.A.. I can see people’s eyes rolling back in their heads as I’m trying to pitch this movie, and getting this movie was one fight and uphill battle after another."