Cool News
A Report From IN THE DIRECTOR
Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Well, at least one of our readers made it to the Regal Cinemas presentation where M. Night Shyamalan spoke live via satellite to 41 theaters around the country, and took the time to write up a report about it. There were about ten minutes out of the full three hours of THE BURIED SECRET OF M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN where it felt like he was being genuine, and in those ten minutes, he came across as a very likeable guy. Perhaps seeing him in this setting gave an audience a more personal look at him. Let’s see what our reader thought...
Hola Harry and Company!
I attended the In Directors Chair interview of M. Night that was broadcast live over satellite to 41 regal cinemas around the country last night. I was part of the Las Vegas group that only had 5 or 6 people besides myself in the audience. There is no fucking film culture in Sin City! Anyhow the interview itself was very cool and M. Night is an awesome and engaging interviewee. I think the biggest detriment to the whole affair was Joel Sigel (the interviewer and MC) acting like a bumbling idiot interrupting M. Night by making stupid jokes left and right and even at one point mistaking M. Night for the gentleman in the jewelry store scene of Sixth Sense, to which M. Night replied "It's ok Joel, all us Indians look alike." The crowd oooo'd over that one and left Joel as red as an apple. You could tell as the interview progressed M. Night was getting annoyed by Joel's inappropriate interjections and started to face the audience when answering questions, basically taking over the whole thing as only he could.
Here's a quick rundown of the questions and M. Night's answers, abridged of course: How he got started? He made two complete turds of movies with Praying with Anger and Wide Awake trying to be art house before attempting to do something mainstream that still contained his sensibilities. Thus Sixth Sense was born. Originally started out as a story of a crime photographer that finds symbols in his son's drawings that appear on the victims of a serial killer. Felt it was too typical of a serial killer story and it kept coming out like Silence of the Lambs. That's when he developed the story further into the family drama we now know. Finished the final draft on a Friday, put it up for sale the following Monday and demanded no less than 1 million dollars. Said if they offered him $900,000 he still would not to do it. His previous failures had numbed him to being afraid of getting rejected. Within an hour of it being up for sale it was already at the 2 million dollar mark.
His motivation: He doesn't like to be comfortable. Anything and everything he is afraid of doing he attacks it head on. Such is the case with Unbreakable where he knew it would be challenging for fans of Sixth Sense ,but did it anyway. The film now has developed a huge cult following. His main star for The Village was cast after he saw her in a Broadway play. He loved her perfromance so much that he signed her on without having her audition for the role. This is a woman with no film experience whatsoever, but he felt she was right for the part.
Why he acts in his movies: He believes that in order to be a great filmmaker you need to understand all facets of filmmaking. Each movie was a step for him. Starting with directing, then writing, then acting, and now sound design which he paid extra attention to in The Village. He talked about how they finalizing the mix of a scene in The Village and felt it wasn't working anymore. Despite everyone calling him crazy he had them strip the sounds apart, sound by sound. He discovered that the foley work they did for a particular character had her footstep be aggressive rather then gentle which is what the scene was aiming for. He said that one element changed the whole delivery of the line.
How he writes: Staying original was his main answer. Anything that even has a whiff of a scene from another movie is tossed right out. Said that he was going to shelve Sixth Sense after he heard that they were making Casper! Also he has a certain gift for telling intimate stories. He said that if he had directed Troy it just would have had two guys fighting on one side of the wall while the sounds of 5,000 army guys could be heard on the other side, but not seen. Mentioned that when he was attempting to write Indy 4 for Spielberg that he kept having too introspective of an angle on the theme of heroism and what it meant. Spielberg said if you want to continue you can, but Night was getting busy with Signs.
Other films he is working on: Briefly mentioned he was on the fence about signing on to adapting Life of Pi. Also said he was given the chance to adapt Wuthering Heights, but upon reading it fell in love with the era it was in which lead to him writing The Village, making it a period piece.
At the very end he was asked if there was a question he would ask to himself: He was concerned about the bigger he gets the less connected he will be with his audience. Since he will not be forced to be a part of the regular joe's daily struggles then his stories will be distanced from this audience he is vying for. He likened it to a rockstar who gets so big that they are no longer able to connect with their audience who loved him for being like one of them and being able to write songs they could relate to. He also had a great line about how being a failure is the same as being a great success. The false engines of motivation are no longer there, you are empty either way.
All in all M. Night was a very invigorating person to listen to, especially if you're a brudgeoning filmmaker like myself. This interview totally cast him in a different light then that Sci-Fi debacle last Sunday. Totally bright, funny (kept using "and he killed it!"), and enlightening. A very likable guy. Anyhow there you go. Hey if you get a chance I would love for you to check out my short film trailer at truecaliber.com for Dwelling. It's playing at next month's Rhode Island International Film Festival. If not if you could just include this small blurb about my film if you decide to post this up. Thanks and can't wait for The Village!
Call me Tru Cal!Thanks for the report, Tru Cal, and it’s interesting to hear that Shyamalan hasn’t made his mind up about THE LIFE OF PI yet. I actually hope he doesn’t make the film, because the novel (while beautifully written) once again relies on a twist ending, and it would be far more interesting to see Shyamalan move past that particular gimmick and stretch other muscles as an artist. Overall, sounds like you had a great time.
"Moriarty" out.
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Anyone who actually thought that was a real documentary and not some joke thing is an idiot. It was on sco-fi I mean come on, what a waste of time that was anyway. The new trailer for the Village make it seem it is going to be a good thriller and should put a bright light on a month where movies have basically been really pathetic.
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Now I know that Life of Pi has a twist ending...(removing it from my amazon wish list).. when you know there's a twist ending it ruins the rest of it.
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I just hope it's as good as Unbreakable, still his best movie to date.
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looking forward to village, but worried about life of pi being made into a movie. excellent book, but not exactly movie material. by the way, kentrel, there isn't a twist in the ending in life of pi. you should read it. very imaginative.
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Hey Tru-Cal...Checked out your trailer for the short, "The Dwelling." Looks cool man. Interesting premise too. We need more independant film support to broaden the door for underground films. Keep it up and good luck at the festival.
"OUT." -
Whether the book has a twist ending or not largely depends on how you interpret the ending. There is a possibility presented, one that seems probable, but is never confirmed. However, I agree that it would be too familiar for Night to really surprise people, and to top it all off it even has a signiture color (orange) to go with some of his other movies (red for Sixth Sense, purple for Unbreakable). I hope the movie gets made someday, and I hope that whoever makes it has enough respect for the Indian culture and doesn't just try to rewrite it so they don't have to cast an unknown Indian actor. But to the person above who scratched it off their list, put it back on. It's well worth reading just for the details and the language alone.
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He is known for the twist ending, but still respected for his works... why not let Night do his thing? Sure, it gets repetitive, but signs really wasn't much of a 'surprise' ending, was it? More of a revelation, which happens in most films.
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Life of Pi does not have a twist ending, at least not in the sense that everything that came before it turns out to be something completely different. Only the possibility of that is presented, and it's that possibility which is really the moral of the story: what do you choose to believe? Great book, very difficult to make into a great film. I choose to believe Shyamalan can do it..
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Jul 21, 2004 6:50:47 PM CDT
I was going to comment, but Sheeld summed it up perfectly..
by captain katanga
Beautiful book... fucking hard to adapt but could be great.
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People misuse the word twist. I get tired of people using it to describe M Night movies. Sorry, Unbreakable didn't have a twist. Neither did Signs. Get over it.
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I agree- the Twist word is overused in relation to M Night's work. Signs had no sort of twist at all, unless you try to sell that 'God Exists' is a twist. And in Unbreakable, is it really a twist ending that Samuel L is a bad guy? It doesn't change anything about what has happened to Dunn. He's still a hero, which is what teh movie was about.
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maybe not the whole tilogy greenlit, but just a stab at the sequel to see where he wanted to take the characters...
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He should have said "Stupid fucking white people." Now that would have been witty.
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Jul 21, 2004 10:27:52 PM CDT
"...which lead him to write The Village, making it a period piec
by osmosis jones
**coughbullshitcough**
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that the Village would turn out well. I read somewhere (perhaps on this very site) that the script was "abysmal" and that M. Night would be asking for a very angry audience with his turn of events. So, I tried to keep my hopes down...but, damnit, the more trailers I see the more excited I get about it. Of course, Adrien Brody's presence doesn't hurt things...(purr)
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Jul 21, 2004 11:50:43 PM CDT
Geeze Moriarty, will you give the M. Night hating a rest? Pleas
by happyhamster
Not telling you how to run the site or anything, but come on dude! Let...it...go.
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You mean when I said he came across as a "likeable guy"? Oooooh... the harsh sting of the brutal insult...
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Jul 22, 2004 3:13:57 AM CDT
No doubt this movie will bomb. Okay, now can we PLEASE have a s
by cherrycola
Dammit M.Night....you know we want to see you tell the story of bruce willis' character after the apprehention of mr. glass! So get on with it you crazy bastard! Bruce's character should be a government agent...or a simple vigilante. A trilogy would be awesome and well-recived. I hate it when directors talk about sequels, etc. I'm still waiting for the sequel to "History of the world" so I can marvel at the artistry of "jews in space" :)
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Dr. detroit ended with a promise of a sequel called: "Dr. Detroit 2: the Wrath of Mom". I'm still waiting for THAT much delayed sequel! :D
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Jul 22, 2004 3:59:11 AM CDT
"You mean when I said he came across as a "likeable guy"? Oooooh
by archduke_chocula
Yeah mori really didn't come off as hating M. night in this article which surpised me a bit.
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seems to me that he just couldn't write Indianna jones and made Spielberg out to be the one who was wrong.
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Life of Pi has a 'twist' ending. The book theorizes on the origin of religious fables, and why they exist. Oh the pain.
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With Hulk Hogan as the Alien Leader "A planet called earth should have no water, brother"
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His first 3 films have absolutely knocked my socks off and left me emotionally exhausted. For me personally, all three of his movies have somehow connected with me on a very deep emotional level.
I have pretty low expectations for THE VILLAGE which I think is a good thing.
I WANT AN UNBREAKABLE SEQUEL! -
Jul 22, 2004 9:44:15 AM CDT
Why doesnt he just say something about his Hitchcock complex?
by milldakill
M Knight for sure has some sort of Hitchcock complex. He should admit it too.
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When's that one starting up?
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Can't believe I forgot those two. Especially Legend. One of my favorites.
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Maybe in his wildest dreams...sheesh is there no end to this guy's ego? Wasn't he the one who said once something like that there was a magic process of film-making that only he and Spielberg knew about it? Plus, he is the WORST actor and he keeps giving himself bigger and bigger parts in his movies. Tell me his BIG SCENE in SIGNS didn't completely take you out of the movie either with his horrific acting or the fact that you knew it was him. Plus I don't like the way he'll write a line for the movie where the character drops a bomb and then either says something mundane directly after or quickly exits. For example in the aforementioned "SIGNS", "There's a monter outside my room. Can I have a drink of water?" or "I locked up an alien. He's trapped in my cellar." Vrrrooooom. See ya. It's like he's trying too hard, it's so cliche'. It's like M. Night is jumping onto the screen after a BIG MOMENT and yelling, "You just got served!" (all apologies to South Park) I think his movies are OK, if a bit slow and why does everybody whisper so much? ### THE VILLAGE SPOILER ALERT### If it is true that the red marks on the Village doors are just modern demolition markings and that's the whole "twist" is that it's actually an isolated community living in MODERN times- well, that just fucking sux donkey dicks in hell. M. Night needs to do a comedy or something different and get over himself!!
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...to see a Celebrity Death Match between M. Night and Quentin Tarantino. Both of these guys have egos the size of small suns and haven't done much of real worth since their first-film successes. They were going to be the new lions of Hollywood, but QT basically hid in his mom's basement after the disappointing Jackie Brown and waited until his die-hardest fanboys clamoured for the crap-fest that was Kill Bill (in the age of reality TV, it doesn't surprise me at all that this mindless piece of self-indulgent tripe was lauded by the least common denominator) and M. Night is just going to keep pulling recycled Twilight Zone scripts out of his ass until we all appreciate his obvious genius. Defend him all you want, but Shyamalan is a one-trick pony with delusions of grandeur and QT, over-rated hack that he is, would wipe the ring with him based on pure cocaine-fueled aggression alone. Unless of course the match has an M. Night ending where we find out Quentin is violently allergic to water.
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In the ten minutes he was "genuine". You skew facts well enough to be republican.
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But I...I...I liked Kill Bill. (sniffle) I...I liked it a lot. (tear rolls down cheek) I'm sorry I just...really really love it and it's one of my favorite things in the whole wild world! WAHHHHHH! (runs off to the nearest corner and curls up in a little ball)
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He goes batsh!t and makes bad movies that only he can understand
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