M. Night Shyamalan On Lady In The Water Exclusive: He didn't want his name on it
After a revelatory ghost tale, a supernatural comic thriller, a crop-circling tale of invasion and a mystical, creature-infested village, M. Night Shyamalan’s latest movie – Lady In The Water – has been noted as something of a departure from the Director/writer’s more calculated “scary” storytelling efforts. Was this cartwheeling ‘family’ tale a deliberate attempt to confound the expectations of his audience? Speaking at a press conference in London today, the auteur discussed some of the ways he’s tried to avoid being “put in a box”.
“The Sixth Sense was the first one of my movies that everyone got to see and it was a scary film – that was part of the subject matter. So when Unbreakable came out, I felt like everyone thought it was a mistake, but it wasn’t necessarily supposed to be scary…I didn’t realise I had been set in that vein already. However, if I worried too much about that I wouldn’t be able to write. I’d love it if everyone could look at Lady In The Water as a lyrical parable, but there will be people that won’t get it because they are coming at it with a certain lexicon of what to expect already in place”.
“So, I seriously thought about taking my name off [the film]. When I was thinking about doing Life Of Pi, I was very worried about putting my name on the project. It's an amazing book that has a twist ending, but if I put my name on it, it would immediately lose the balance of the novel. So it’s something I struggle with. I said to my wife that 'Lady...' may have benefited from my name being removed. At least then it would have signaled to people to look at the movie with a new language in mind".
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I haven't seen "Lady" yet but its brilliant, the village is brilliant. All his films are brilliant. He can do no wrong.
I may have overstepped the line of objectivity into obsessive, closed minded adoration. A bit like Empire with George Lucas and Peter (Kong is crap) Jackson. ... Read More
Agree. I thought The 6th Sense was pretty good and does stand up to a repeated viewing. Unbreakable was a decent film too i felt, if a little to sombre at times though. Signs was poor. The whole Aliens allergic to water thing felt like a cop out. Earth is made up of about 80% water! Hello!
It also felt like a rip off of War of the Worlds.
The village bored me so badly, and i figured what was going on part way through. Then spent the rest of the movie thinking "if this goes the way i think i... Read More
He doesn't make different films than anyone else... Am I taking crazy pills here? Lady in the Water is Shyamalan's take on Splash! spliced with previous ideas from The Village. Pure and simple. What he does with film genres is not rocket science or nearly half as ingenious as he is hyped as being. Aren't his films extended episodes of The Twilight Zone / X Files / Kolchack or other movies that we've all seen done very similarly - if not better - before? ... Read More
...if you think that it'll help rather than hinder the film. Saying that, if his name wasn't on the poster and TV ads I wouldn't be spending £6 on a ticket to see the film. ... Read More
He makes different films to anyone else, even if they are self-indulgent, at least they are enjoyable when they work. The trouble is he is a bit hit and miss. He always gets very very mixed reviews. ... Read More
I don't really care if he's arrogant or not. I don't want to know the guy, I want to enjoy his films. My main problem being that they are so mind-numbingly average that only strong performances make them in any way engaging to watch. How his mildly diverting scripts attract such strong performers amazes me... that he has been elevated to the level of auteur on a string of such so-so films depresses me even more. If the best praise one can give is that his films aren't sequels... that ... Read More
Well he hasn't included a twist in his latest movie, so maybe he is slightly trying to get rid of the f Twists" But surely even with a title like that, it can't be the decider to whether or not he can be a successful director...
I wouldn't go as far as to call him the new Hitchcocket, but he certainly has something special when compared to a lot of the filmakers of today. Also, i really don't think he's becoming that arrogant. If he was, then he could have started years ago after he made th S... Read More
... he could remove himself as writer, director, actor and then the whole film from existence. Shyamalan has barely even sensed that when I see his name attached to a project my defining preconception is "great, another high-concept movie for low I.Q. viewers." Without exception his films are carried by the considerable talents of great actors elevating their derivative scripts to such a height one forgets how dumb the plot convolutions are. Examples: The Sixth Sense? Same ending as Jacob'... Read More
John Carpenters movies are always introduced/billed as his. For example: John Carpenters The Thing, John Carpenters The Fog, John Carpenters Big Trouble in Little China, etc.
Although from what i read about Shymalan he is becoming somewhat big headed. He does seem to want to stick his face on the big screen more and more, his parts in his own movies getting progressively larger and more centre stage. Maybe his name above the Movie title just isn't enough for him, he wants us to see him on the... Read More
actually one thinks thats probably a tactic by the marketing company to capitalise on the name of the director , More then nights own decision !! ... Read More
