M. Night Shaymalan

BURIED Screenwriter Chris Sparling to Pen TWELVE STRANGERS for M. Night Shyamalan’s Production Company, The Night Chronicles

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: June 23rd, 2010 at 9:37 pm

M. Night Shyamalan has hired Buried screenwriter Chris Sparling to pen the thriller Twelve Strangers for Shyamalan’s genre production company, The Night Chronicles.  Deadline says that the Twelve Strangers is about “a jury deliberating a case involving the supernatural.”  [Insert joke about a twist ending that reveals the jury has been dead the whole time even though Shyamalan isn't writing the movie or attached to direct]  For those who don’t know, Buried stars Ryan Reynolds as a man buried alive with a lighter and a cell phone as his only resources.  The film received positive notices at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and will be released on October 8th.

Earlier this week, we reported that Shyamalan was shopping around a new script with Bradley Cooper, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Bruce Willis loosely attached.  Deadline says that “Cooper would play a father on a desperate search for his missing child.  It might stray into Taken terrain, but the father taps into some supernatural powers to aid the search.”  [Insert joke about the father being dead the whole time]  Hit the jump for more on Shyamalan’s deal regarding Night Chronicles.

THE LAST AIRBENDER Teaser Trailer

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: June 22nd, 2009 at 7:54 pm

“From M. Night Shaymalan”

Well now we’re just off to a bad start.  That’s the way the teaser trailer for “The Last Airbender” opens and if I were marketing the film, I would do everything in power to hide his association.  And yet as you can see above, even his name is part of the title.  It’s not “The Last Airbender”.  It’s “An M. Night Shaymalan Film: The Last Airbender”.  Does he not know he’s unsuccessful at this point?  That it’s not his name that’s going to sell this film, but the popularity of the TV series that will bring in kids and their families?

Thankfully, that seems to be who most of this teaser is targeting.  Those unfamiliar with “Airbender” will just see a little kid twirling a staff and blowing out candles before getting a look at a weird marking on his face.  But I imagine young fans will just go giddy at the site of it, completely unaware that the fate of their beloved project rests in the hands of a man who thought it was dramatic to have characters try to out-run wind.

Check out the teaser after the jump.  “The Last Airbender” is currently slated to hit theatres in Summer 2010.

M. Night Shaymalan Still Interested in UNBREAKABLE 2

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: June 17th, 2009 at 7:28 pm

In a recent interview, M. Night Shaymalan lets us know that he is still interested in making “Unbreakable 2″. I would settle for a movie that isn’t laughably atrocious but, sure, a sequel to “Unbreakable”. That sounds…interesting?

Of course, this is really nothing more than a pipe dream. Assuming he has roles for Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson, there’s no guarantee they’d return. Furthermore, Shaymalan is committed to a trilogy of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” movies and even if we allow for the very narrow possibility that the first film wil be enough of a hit to warrant sequels, Shaymalan lets us know that sitting down and writing a story just doesn’t work that way.

“I want a story to pop into my head that is organic and expressive of who I am,” he said at the time. “You know, these are all kinds of journals of where I am emotionally, so it’s kind of hard. I’m kind of trying to go back to the journal that existed in 1999 for me. But I know me: As soon as I give up on it is when the idea will come to me.”

Never give up, Night. Never give up. Keep believing you’re a genius and make sure to have no room in your once-in-a-generation mind to acknowledge and respect the differeing ethnicities of characters in “Airbender”. That way you won’t have to worry about providing a sequel no one but you wants.

Click here but don’t be eye-in’ my lemon drank.

First Images from M. Night Shaymalan’s THE LAST AIRBENDER

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: May 21st, 2009 at 7:52 pm

USA Today has landed the first photo from M. Night Shaymalan’s “The Last Airbender” which is based off the popular Nickelodeon quasi-anime,

“Avatar: The Last Airbender”.  I wonder why they didn’t keep the “Avatar” part of the title…

Basically the photo is a kid in his PJs about to kick your ass. The kid is Aang, the titular “Airbender” (which I always thought would be a great name for an airline run by a hard-drinking, unscrupulous robot), and he’s played by Noah Ringer who looks like he was custom-made for the role since he keeps his head shaved (I have a hard time believing that) and is already an expert in martial arts (which he probably had to learn when he kept getting his ass kicked for being the only bald kid in his elementary school).

There’s also a photo “Slumdog Millionaire’s” Dev Patel as the villainous Zuko (who is actually a character of Chinese origin in the show but all foreigners are apparently the same so whatevs) which you can check out after the jump.

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