Ahoy, squirts! Quint here again with another ShoWest footage round-up!

LADY IN THE WATER

M. Night Shyamalan came out to introduce the clip after both the POSEIDON clip and the SUPERMAN RETURNS clip and was having second thoughts about showing his footage. He said the previous two films' directors had chosen to pick the big, heavy hitting clips and Shyamalan chose to just bring a solid 10 minute clip from Act 1 of LADY IN THE WATER, saying he wanted to give an accurate representation of his movie by just picking a whole scene and not constructing a montage. He said that his films always have his voice very strongly implanted within them. Whether you like what his voice is saying or not, it's at least his own.

He also made sure to say that he felt very much inspired by movies like E.T. when this story was bubbling up in his brain, noting we haven't had a movie like E.T. for the next generation. That's what he was aiming for.

The clip starts with Paul Giamatti walking back to his little super intendant's shack next to a pool. As he approaches the little path that leads to his door the sprinkler system turns on. This is all one, long shot with the camera pretty far back. Giamatti stops and his body language is pretty much, "Of course..." He tucks his head low and hobbles up the path at a half-run, getting wet all the way up to his door.

We cut to inside his little abode and he's crashed out in front of the TV. Images of the Iraq war are on the tube bottom left of the frame. The window outside showing the swimming pool is the upper right side of the frame. There's obviously something in the water. Giammati is slumbering and he's jolted awake by one of the explosions on the TV. He goes to the sink, facing the camera in an extreme close up, the window to the pool over his shoulder. Something moves in the pool, noisily enough to draw his attention.

He leaves his little house and walks to the pool... It's dark, the water is not clear at all. "Hello?" He gets no response. He looks around... There's nothing. He's about to turn away when something moves in the water. He jerks his flashlight to the pool again. Then there's a glimpse of a person surfacing and sinking again. No real detail, just something vaguely human. "I saw you!!! I saw you!! (pause) Come out of that pool right now!"

The water is still.

"I'm going to wait..." Pause. "Hey... Hey? C-c-come on out now." His tone has changed from pissed off to worried. His stutter pops up for the first time (in the footage at least). "I-i-it's not safe... P-p-please..." Pleading now, his stutter getting worse. The water is still calm.

Clothes and all, Giamatti steps into the pool... water up to his ankles, then to his knees, then to his hips and chest. He dives underneath, looking for the person. He's almost frantic. He can't find them. The water's almost black. He can't find anything, he's out of breath and confused. He pulls himself out of the pool. Sitting at the side... There's a sudden movement and he freaks, slipping on the pool's edge as he tries to run away. He falls and hits his head, passing out. His body is teetering on the edge of the pool. He falls in, unconscious.

Cut to him waking up in his cottage. He sees Bryce Dallas Howard, seemingly naked except for one of his shirts, sitting with her knees pulled up to her chest, her red hair shaggy, spilling over her shoulders. Her pale eyes are wide, like a child's. She has a red gash on her right calf, which stands out against her pale complexion. Giamatti (in a whisper): "Did you pull me out?" She nods.

"Where are you from?" Howard: "The blue world." Giamatti: "Is that an apartment?" This whole part is played in whispers. I don't want to give away the whole bit since, unlike the previous clips, this is a solid continuing bit from the movie, but suffice it to say that you get to know a bit about Howard and Giamatti. He urges her to go, she's obviously scared. Doesn't want to go. He says, "You can wait here a little bit... until you're not so scared."

She curls up next to Giamatti and falls asleep. He looks at her and whispers to himself, "Oh my God... She's just a kid."

He falls asleep, too and wakes up with her pretty much entangled in him, her legs over his lap, etc. He tells her it's time to go... she's still asleep. He says they need some fresh air, so he picks her up and walks her outside. He mutters something about putting her outside, on one of the pool chairs to finish sleeping.

He walks her outside. It's still night time. As he walks, something stalks in the foliage next to the cottage. Something on all fours... almost lion-like. There's a deep growling... We see Howard and Giamatti through this creature's eyes. Giamatti hears the growling and stops in his tracks, Howard still curled up in his arms. He looks around, sees something moving. The creature makes a louder sound. Howard's eyes open. She hears it and screams, which gets a roar from this creature. The screaming woman in his arms and the roaring creature obscured by the darkness and brush start Giamatti screaming and he turns back to the cottage, running full out with this screaming woman and the bushes to the side of the cottage rustling as the creature runs by his side, just behind him.

The glimpse of the creature we get was very brief, but it did look like a sort of saber-toothed tiger. The creature was CGI. Other than that, I couldn't give you much more detail. Giamatti makes it to the door, throws it open just in time and slams it shut.

Out of breath on the other side of the door, Giamatti says, "Was that a dog? A hyena? Are there wolves in this part of the world?" Howard (calm, but scared): "It was not a dog. I am sorry." Giamatti: "It's not your fault..." Her looks seems to disagree. That's where the clip ended.

I've only disliked one of Shyamalan's flicks (not counting his Rosie movie) and that was his last, THE VILLAGE. I liked a lot in that movie. The man creates suspense and mystery better than almost any living filmmaker. The story didn't live up to the tone for me. I'm hoping LADY IN THE WATER is a return to form, where the story and character work are all as strong as his directing. I'm certainly intrigued by the footage, which I liked very much. It reminded me a bit of the pacing of UNBREAKABLE with a bit of the mystery of THE VILLAGE. Very curious about this one.

Alright, only one more round of ShoWest footage description to go and that's for George Miller's HAPPY FEET! Keep an eye out, squirts!

-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com