• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

M. Night Shyamalan Films

M Night's got a new film coming. And it isn't with Disney!

Warners' Night Moves

By Josh Grossberg

It must be a sign. First Pixar, then the Weinsteins, then Michael Eisner--now M. Night Shyamalan has decided to ditch Disney. The Oscar-nominated helmer has announced he's leaving the Mouse House, where he built his reputation as one of Hollywood's most bankable directors, to make his next spookfest at Warner Bros.

As usual, the movie, Lady in the Water, is a fantasy thriller set in Philly--this one about a building superintendent who discovers a sea nymph living in his apartment complex's pool. Shyamalan penned the screenplay and will coproduce Lady via his Blinding Edge Pictures production banner.

Losing Shyamalan to rival Warner Bros. is a big blow for Disney, which is reeling from the loss of Pixar, the pending departure of Miramax bosses Bob and Harvey Weinstein and a shareholder revolt that forced Eisner to hand over the keys to the Magic Kingdom to his number two, Robert Iger. The writer-director's first four films for the studio--The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, and The Village--were all blockbusters, having grossed a combined $1.5 billion in worldwide ticket sales.

His most recent feature, last summer's The Village, capped a two-picture, first-look deal Shyamalan had with Disney. But apparently, the studio that brought moviegoers The Little Mermaid wasn't so keen on sea nymphs. After recent talks broke down over Lady, both sides mutually decided to go their separate ways.

"We have a terrific relationship with Night, and although we didn't agree creatively on this particular project, we look forward to working with him in the future," a Disney spokesman told E! Online, stressing the parting was on good terms. For its part, Warners was pleased to sign Shyamalan to its roster of big name talent.

"I hope that it is the first of many outstanding films that Night makes at our studio," studio president Alan Horn said in a statement. The filmmaker concurred. "Lady in the Water is a personal movie with a big idea, and it seems just perfect for Warner Bros.," said Shyamalan. "I'm thrilled they responded to the story, and we all can't wait to get started."

Shyamalan will shoot Lady in his hometown of Philadelphia, where he's shot his previous flicks, beginning in August; the film is slated to hit theaters on July 21, 2006. Casting has just begun. The writer-director has also been developing a big-screen version of Yann Martel's best-selling lost-at-sea novel, Life of Pi, but there's no production timetable--or studio home base--set for that project.
Click to expand...

Source
 
Signs was on BBC1, tonight. I gave up before the end and read the spoiler on the Web, instead.

I liked the tinfoil hats though.

random127.jpg
 
Yeah the tinfoil hats were great - props to the props.

I thought it was interesting if a tad contrived (everything was flagged with huge flashing neon signs - excuse the pun) and parts seemed very shaky:

spoiler
So they can cross the universe but not get through a door?

If they are so badly injured by water why don't they have some kind of thin waterproof suit?

None of that is rocket science (esp. compared to the rocket science they clearly possess ;) ).
/spoiler

Nice to see crop circles woven into a big movie but it didn't work for me.
 
Lucky one was an EX baseball player so he was able to give the alien a proper beating! Sick 'em boy!! :roll: :lol:
 
Signs works best as a fairy tale or fable, so I don't see that the science fiction element was really necessary. One brilliant scene makes it worthwhile, the bit where Joaquin Phoenix watches the news about the invasion on TV and sees the camcorder footage of the alien.
 
M. Night Shyamalan's next film - should be interesting and big news later in the year.

Lady in the Water (2006)

Cleveland Heep rescues a mysterious young woman and discovers she is actually a narf, a character from a bedtime story who is trying to make the treacherous journey from our world back to hers. As Cleveland falls in love with the woman, he works together with the tenants to protect his new fragile friend from the deadly creatures that are determined to prevent her from returning home.
Click to expand...

In "Lady in the Water," a story originally conceived by Shyamalan for his children, a modest building manager named Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) rescues a mysterious young woman (Bryce Dallas Howard) from danger and discovers she is actually a narf, a character from a bedtime story who is trying to make the treacherous journey from our world back to hers. Cleveland and his fellow tenants start to realize that they are also characters in this bedtime story. As Cleveland falls deeper and deeper in love with the woman, he works together with the tenants to protect his new fragile friend from the deadly creatures that reside in this fable and are determined to prevent her from returning home.
Click to expand...

www.imdb.com/title/tt0452637/

Site:
http://ladyinthewatermovie.warnerbros.com

Trailer:
www.apple.com/trailers/wb/ladyinthewater/
 
I saw this for £3.99 (inc delivery) at Play.com:

Silent Warnings (2003) (V)

After the accidental death of his cousin Joe Vossimer (Stephen Baldwin), the just-graduated electronic engineer Layne Vossimer (A.J. Buckley) joins his girlfriend and four friends of them to visit and clean the inherited farm in the country. The local Sheriff Bill Willingham (Billy Zane) is an old friend of Layne, and also grieves the death of Joe. When the group arrives in the farm, some weird and mysterious signs appear in the cornfield, but they believe the other locals are joking with them. When Iris Doyle (Kim Onasch) vanishes, the rest of the group realizes that there is a serious menace jeopardizing that place.
Click to expand...

www.imdb.com/title/tt0348031/

www.play.com/play247.asp?page=title&r=R ... g=72&pa=sr

I wonder if Mel could sue this straight-to-video rip off??

Anyone seen it?
 
gncxx said:
One brilliant scene makes it worthwhile, the bit where Joaquin Phoenix watches the news about the invasion on TV and sees the camcorder footage of the alien.
Click to expand...
Yep. That's far and away the best bit of the film (along with the tinfoil hats :)). Other than that it's another excursion into M Night's growing catalogue of films that might have been great.
Emps said:
I wonder if Mel could sue this straight-to-video rip off??

Anyone seen it?
Click to expand...
No, but I'm almost tempted to buy it at 99p.
 
Incidentally, what was the purpose of the crop circles in Signs? Why were the aliens actually making them in the first place?
 
graylien said:
Incidentally, what was the purpose of the crop circles in Signs? Why were the aliens actually making them in the first place?
Click to expand...
Because that's what aliens do. ;)
 
Mighty_Emperor said:
I saw this for £3.99 (inc delivery) at Play.com:

Silent Warnings (2003) (V)

After the accidental death of his cousin Joe Vossimer (Stephen Baldwin), the just-graduated electronic engineer Layne Vossimer (A.J. Buckley) joins his girlfriend and four friends of them to visit and clean the inherited farm in the country. The local Sheriff Bill Willingham (Billy Zane) is an old friend of Layne, and also grieves the death of Joe. When the group arrives in the farm, some weird and mysterious signs appear in the cornfield, but they believe the other locals are joking with them. When Iris Doyle (Kim Onasch) vanishes, the rest of the group realizes that there is a serious menace jeopardizing that place.
Click to expand...

www.imdb.com/title/tt0348031/

www.play.com/play247.asp?page=title&r=R ... g=72&pa=sr

I wonder if Mel could sue this straight-to-video rip off??

Anyone seen it?
Click to expand...

Yes, and it is incredibly similar.

Spoiler: in this one, the aliens are sensitive to iron or something, instead of water

I'm actually having trouble remembering which bits were in this film and which were in Signs.
 
Just saw it on DVD. What an impressively bad film. They say it takes great talent to make a great piece of shit, and boy howdy, M. Night does.

What a pathetic, shameless vanity project this is. Even his defenders note his ability to create a mood and here he doesn't even pull that off. It's just disjointed worthless scene after disjointed worthless scene. Oh, and M. Night himself plays a misunderstood genius whose work will only be understood a generation from now. Dude, fuck you. Get over yourself. Your movie sucks.

This is one of the few movies I've seen where if I actually came into contact with the director, I'd want to punch him. The only others that generated this kind of anger in me within the last decade were Moulin Rouge and The Contender.
 
Am I the only one who saw " The Happenings" On Watch? Didn't see how the tricks were done but thought the concept was original at least. There are more episodes about (among other things) Vampires and psychics!
 
I've seen it.
It's an original idea, but it's a typical M. Night Shyamalan film.
 
'ang on, are you thinking of The Happening? Rushfan's on about the TV series where a pair of stage magicians convinced a load of bumpkins that aliens'd landed. They proved this by unlocking someone's car by poking a hand through a closed car window.

No, I don't either. :lol:
 
Techy loves TV magicians, especially the apparently spontaneous 'street' ones. I can't convince him that it's all fake and the random passers-by're really stooges. He thinks it's really clever sleight-of-hand and palming.

He'll say 'So, how did that bloke get his hand through the jeweller's window then? How did David Copperfield make the Statue of Liberty disappear? Eh? Eh? You don't know, do you?'

I just shake my head and murmur something about camera tricks. :roll:
 
escargot1 said:
How did David Copperfield make the Statue of Liberty disappear? Eh? Eh? You don't know, do you?'
Click to expand...
That one's easy. The audience was on a turntable, which turned very slowly while the statue was concealed, so when the curtain was dropped, they were looking at a different part of New York Harbour.

I've forgotten where I read that one, but I believe that is actually how it was done, not just speculation.
 
escargot1 said:
'ang on, are you thinking of The Happening? Rushfan's on about the TV series where a pair of stage magicians convinced a load of bumpkins that aliens'd landed. They proved this by unlocking someone's car by poking a hand through a closed car window.

No, I don't either. :lol:
Click to expand...
They didn't just poke a hand through the window, they used an extra terrestrial tin foil (the same as found at Roswell) which had been reactivated due to proximity of said ETs.
I Believe!
 
Aahhh, yup, I forgot about the foil. :lol:
 
escargot1 said:
'ang on, are you thinking of The Happening? Rushfan's on about the TV series where a pair of stage magicians convinced a load of bumpkins that aliens'd landed. They proved this by unlocking someone's car by poking a hand through a closed car window.

No, I don't either. :lol:
Click to expand...

Ah, that explains it... :)
 
Wouldn't have surprised me if at some point Derren Brown had appeared in a puff of smoke.
 
The Visit: An odd film, horror yes but mostly of the quotidian type. Also will likely elicit protests from senior citizen groups.

A single mom sends her two children on a visit to her estranged parents (she hasn't seen them for 15 years) in the hope that this will lead to a rapprochement. The old folk are odd, do strange things. But this could be explained by the quirks of the elderly and occasional dementia episodes. But then the grandfather assaults a man he believes is following him and the grandmother races around the house at night.

Effective but disturbing horror film. 7/10

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3567288/
 
Has anyone else got round to watching The Visit? I saw it with a friend the other day and would agree with the critics that it's a partial return to form.

Like any of Shyamalan's films, it doesn't do to think too closely about it. And like many horror films, it took a crass, exploitative approach to themes of mental illness.

I was happy enough to accept granny's behaviour when I thought she was possessed by demons.

But precisely what mental health condition causes you to be slightly absent minded during the day but to scuttle around like a spider stark naked after 9.30 pm?
 
Some viewers thought it was basically telling you old people are disgusting, though I thought it was more a fear of senility from the observers' point of view. It was pretty average, but a lot less fussy than he's been of late, so maybe a step in the right direction? Apart from the rapping, which nobody needed to hear.
 
I enjoyed it. But I'm easy. Like a Sundee morning.
Agree with gray though. It doesn't stand up to close examination. I don't examine Night films closely. He's no Hitchcock but he's competent.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top