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7 New Images from THE DARK KNIGHT RISESReporter Puts M. Night Shyamalan on the Spot About His Career and THE LAST AIRBENDER
by Germain Lussier Posted:July 19th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
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For the amount of people who trounced M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender, very few had the guts and/or the chance to talk to him about it to his face. There’s now a video from a foreign press conference (it’s labeled Mexico City but Shyamalan says he’s in France so who knows) where one ballsy reporter asked him if he was making films more commercial now because the audience had lost faith in him as a filmmaker.
“I think if I thought like you I’d kill myself. Everything you said is the opposite of my instinct as an artist. The way you just thought, I literally would kill myself,” Shyamalan said. And that’s just the start of a near 3 minute answer. Check it out after the jump.
Video via Geeks of Doom:
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The video and Shyamalan’s response obviously speak for themselves but there are a few things to point out. First, as bad as we think most of Shyamalan’s recent movies have been, he has the utmost confidence in them. Second, he doesn’t mention The Happening. Third, Jackson Rathbone’s reactions, both with his face and mouth, are hilarious. I’m sure he and his sister have had MANY heated arguments about which of Shyamalan’s films are their favorites, The Village or Lady in the Water. Fourth, if what Shyamalan says is true, he should start opening his movies in Europe first because the way he makes it sound, only America doesn’t get what he’s trying to do.
What do you guys think? Is he delusional? Narcissistic? Or just super defensive? I can’t figure it out.
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Related Links
- The Razzie Awards Names THE LAST AIRBENDER the Worst Film of 2010
- THE LAST AIRBENDER Blu-ray Review
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- Watch RED Press Conferences with Bruce Willis and Karl Urban, Helen Mirren, and Mary Louise Parker
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Wow, I must say I respect you a lot for admitting you like Lady In The Water. I have honestly never heard anyone admit that. I have it on Blu-Ray (got it for free) and tried to watch it with my 15-year-old daughter. About 30 minutes into it we were so bored we turned it off. I have not seen The Happening but love ALL of his other movies.
I liked The Village, not as good as Sixth Sense but still, I actually thought it was rather clever (admittedly I was only young back then)…I have to say the dialogue and acting was absolutely DIRE in The Happening though. I was really incredibly disappointed, but I still think M Night has got that special something. He just needs to sit back and start using his brain a bit more, and actually use his actors/actresses as an emotional channel (I shall re-iterate here. The acting in The Happening is absolute DIRE.), as oppose to just being a wooden block delivering lines. I haven't seen The Last Airbender yet and I am planning to see it, but it seems like (from various interviews) that he cut out a lot of material that has been filmed and thus the characters viewed by the actors are quite different to the ones we see on scene. It's a shame that Sokka didn't come across as light hearted as in the series, Jackson Rathbone IS essentially a goofy person, and he's a good actor, so there's no way he couldn't portray the Sokka in the series. M Night should've let his daughters watch the final cut of the movie before he actually releases it…but then from what I heard most (if not all) of the pre-teens that went and saw it absolutely loved it. Supposedly (In my opinion anywa), this is a film directed at the pre-teen market, so it's a bit unfair that the critics complain the dialogue being simple/making obvious statements..
He's at that point in his career where he no longer has to FIGHT to get anything made. He's surrounded by yes men and still has this ridiculous deal that no one can read one of his scripts without his Assistant present to make sure they don't leak any plot points anywhere.
The shame is Shyamalan has the talent, he's just gotten LAZY. He doesn't want to try anymore and now we're seeing the arrogance that led to the whole controversy behind the scenes on Lady In the Water.
This response just corresponds to the filmmaker. No longer worth trying.
I was ONLY referring to the movie robin. I've heard good things about the cartoon.
You people are so full of it.
1. First subtitles, the movie title in the background and the reporter talking Spanish? Helloooo Mexico City! You're so retarded you can't figure that out!
2. You anti-American people, you seem jealous doesn't it? You criticize America cause you can't do anything better, and still you watch American movies all the time. I'm not from the US, but I get mad at people being so close minded, bordering racism.
3. Way too many comments for a “talentless” director right? Or are you just bullying Shyamalan to follow some kind of trend? The matter of fact is, he makes movies his way, something that's truly lost nowadays with most directors doing whatever the studio execs want. And you, the same people that attacks Shyamalan, also attack those execs for getting in the middle of creative filmmaking. Make up your minds! If you don't like Shyamalan's movies just don't see them. It's that too tough for you? There people so stupid in the country where I live that are trashing The Last Airbender, and it hasn't even been released here! Just because it's Shyamalan and to follow the stupid internet trend of basing your ideas in other people's comments.
I'm sure I'm gonna be attacked but I don't care. With so much retarded people, it's no surprise that they'll gang to bully anyone seeing things different than them.
I like M. Night Shyamalan. Certainly his recent work has been disappointing, but even in Airbender I saw some moments of real brilliance that reminded me of the man who directed two of my favorite movies, The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable (which has some of his best writing, especially with Samuel L. Jackson's character). Heck, I even liked the atmosphere of The Village and thought that Lady in the Water had some very redeeming moments.
He doesn't strike me as arrogant in any way. On the contrary, I think that he just genuinely wants to maintain his vision artistically, and that's conviction that so many directors lack.
Also, one thing that I admire about Shyamalan *is* his more old-school vision, even if he needs to revise it somewhat by being a bit more willing to collaborate with other writers. Hell, he made a movie about superheroes with only one traditional “fight” scene and managed to deliver a critically successful project. He did the same with Signs by taking the idea of another movie about aliens and only showed them sparingly, using them instead as a means by which a man regains his faith. That was critically successful too.
He's just being normal. His entire artistic being was attacked in an umprofessional way by a reporter and he just answered by, which ANYBODY would do, in that situation. I don't get what all the fuss is about.
I'm not talking about pride or arrogance, guys.
He's deluding himself. I'm a fan of Avatar and he butchered the anime's spirit into confusing drivel. Every single actor was miscast and his direction was heavy-handed, with dialog that made me groan with it's pedantic tedium. He missed the point of the series entirely. How he's still given money to do movies escapes me.
Boingee Boingee Boingee, his new movie, “Satan” looks stupid. The secret ending: The world is satan and the elevator is one of his balls that goes up and down and up and down all day long.
Hahahahahaha, Jimbaba would be proud.
The movie go'ers give his movies plenty of money. $115.1 million for Airbender.
The Sixth Sense = Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode
The Happening = totally Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
The Village = a book called “Running Out of Time”'”
The Devil = I read a person said he/she read a similar premise off of a short story in a japanese horror compilation manga
original my ass
Fine.
1st, the answer to the writer of this article's question is : Ego. It's all ego. Do you remember the part he played in Lady in the Water and his famous book that would change the world?
2nd: The Village was fine up until the sequence of events in the reveal. Much more effective if he would have let the blind girl make it to the car and as she gets to the outpost for medicine, reveal that Adrien Brody was the monster in the woods.
3rd: The Happening was not taken seriously for much the same reason as Indy 4: The audience as a whole does not want to be reminded of one simple fact: that WE are NOT Masters of Our Delusional Universe. Indy 4 worked until the audience was presented with an idea of bigger, smarter, better beings in a multi-dimensional universe. The Happening didn't work because Nature kicked our proverbial asses. We (as an audience) are much more comfortable with the idea that we are the final phase of intelligent evolution who have fairy-tales and bed-time stories about earthbound deities with social allegorical context about tending some proverbial garden.
M. Night may be a maniacal ego tripper but at least he has the balls to pose questions that we deliberately avoid. However, one can tell the caliber of filmmaker by their ability to relate their pulpit rants to the audience so in that context, Night lets his ego trip him up. Wait, I already said that.
Sorry for the Indy 4 thing. Aside from the Shia/Marion part, the movie would have rocked. Time to pass the hat.
Yes, but imdb lists the budget around 150 million. The initial week was 51 mil with a sharp drop following. Toss in marketing and DVD sales (with an extended release that might make more sense with restored cuts), and I'd still say he's not a big money draw with this one.
Overall, with his other movies put together, I'm not sure. He may pull in a steady amount that warrants his continual involvement. But money aside, his continual hubris in directing and ponderous scripting over-reach is wearing thin.
Honestly I don't think he really answered her question as to how he can explain the decline in quality of his work because that was definitely implied.
America is simply more on the spotlight for everything than others.
I am always expecting the new Shyamalan movie to come out and hope it will be good. For some reason, he is sort of dear to me and I want him to do well. After the Village, which seemed like a slump, I thought he'd go back to something impressive, especially after seeing the trailer for Lady in the Water. It was worse. Then the same for the Happenning. It rather made me appreciate some interesting traits of Lady. Then for this one which seemed more of a sure bet because of the popular material that wasn't his, and apparently it fails again (though I haven't seen it). I still can appreciate some things of all his movies and for some reason, I am still hoping he does great movies, even when he shows himself as unlikeable as he does in this interview. As I hoped those movies were slumps, I find myself hoping this is not the true him! :S
And yet, you call people with different views than yours retarded. Nice.
He is so angry he is literally trying to poke his own eye out through his skull to keep himself from losing it.
Never thought he was that great, Sixth Sense was fun, albeit predictable and the rest just kept getting worse and worse. I do hope he shaves his head in public and beats a reporter with an umbrella after this, though.
I think everything after the 6th sense is garbage and like so many directors they chase a paycheck instead of art, there isn't enough coens and wes andersons around. Its ok to say I made this movie for money, the happening had nothing to do with art. Christopher Nolan made one of the best batman films of all time and made tons of cash and a great picture…
He's obviously delusional about his own abilities as a moviemaker.
This Shyamalan bashing running wild is indeed making me scratch my head.
I don’t think so. You see, without Americans the world would be run by some descendent of Adolf Hitler, since without Americans, WWII would have been lost. There would be virtually no Jews left, Israel would not exist and of course all the countries who depend on U.S. aid to keep their economies afloat likely would have caved under (provided Hitler Jr. let them continue to exist).
Americans are crass, loud, ignorant of both geography and history, overbearing and overweight. They are also kind, generous, charitable, and spend more money per year feeding hungry people and cleaning up after national disasters than any other country on the planet. Just because some American was rude to you, or you don’t agree with the current administration’s foreign policy doesn’t mean that none of us even deserve to be alive. THINK before you speak, or you might get mistaken as another dumb American yourself.
wow… he’s a jerk!
and self deluded apparently…