Who directed the 2009 science-fiction film The Box?

Richard Kelly directed the 2009 science-fiction film The Box.

The Box was written and directed by Richard Kelly, whose earlier feature Donnie Darko had also combined science fiction with unsettling moral questions. The film stars Cameron Diaz and James Marsden as Norma and Arthur Lewis, a married couple offered a large sum of money if they press a mysterious button. The choice would cause someone they do not know to die.

The film adapts Richard Matheson’s short story “Button, Button,” but it expands the original premise into a much larger story involving government experiments, extraterrestrial ideas, and moral consequences. That expansion means the movie is not simply a scene-for-scene version of Matheson’s story.

The Box premiered in 2009 and was released in the United States in October of that year. It is sometimes mixed up with unrelated works using the same short title, including a 2011 film directed by another filmmaker. The specific 2009 adaptation is Kelly’s film.