His two previous “scary” movies, 1999’s The Sixth Sense starring Bruce Willis and 2002’s Signs starring Mel Gibson, made more than $1.7 billion globally between them. But analysts are puzzled as to how The Happening will do when it opens around the world this week. “His box-office record has been all over the map, but he’s held to such a high standard because of how well The Sixth Sense did,” said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Media By Numbers. “I don’t think this is going to be Lady in the Water, he said. “This is definitely going to be a stronger opening then that. The marketing has been pretty strong, and audiences are always intrigued by M. Night Shyamalan.”
Brandon Gray, president of movie Web site box-office Mojo, agreed. But he added that because Shyamalan is promoted as a key selling point — his name appears above the title on movie posters — a box-office failure is more harmful to him. “Even though Lady in the Water is by no means the greatest flop ever and The Village did a lot of business, it just disappointed a lot of people,” Gray said. The Happening, starring Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel, sees an invisible killer spread throughout the U.S. Northeast, leaving people asking if it is a terrorist attack, a government conspiracy or an unexplainable act of nature.
“There’s so many things to be paranoid about right now,” said Shyamalan, adding he wanted to play on people’s fears for the future about such things as terrorism and climate change. “I was so clear about what kind of movie I was making.” After seeing the movie, Shyamalan hopes audiences will nervously wonder if “that could really happen” and maybe even feel guilty about how they might be harming the planet. But early reviews have panned the 20th Century Fox film.
“The movie seems more like a ‘50s science-fiction film of extreme paranoia or an episode of The Twilight Zone that even at a swiftly paced 90 minutes feels padded,” The Hollywood Reporter’s Kirk Honeycutt wrote. Variety’s Justin Chang wrote: “After an initial bloom of interest, the Fox release will likely wilt quickly.”
Shyamalan previews big-screen Airbender trilogy
It was a big day for M. Night Shyamalan. The filmmaker held an early Tuesday presentation of his 2010 Paramount Pictures/ Nickelodeon Movies theatrical franchise The Last Airbender and later attended the New York premiere of his Fox thriller The Happening. Before a crowd of eager marketers at New York’s Licensing International Expo 2008, Shyamalan unveiled a preview of his three-feature adaptation of Nickelodeon’s animated sci-fi martial arts series Avatar: The Last Airbender (the first word has been removed to avoid confusion with James Cameron’s upcoming sci-fi film). The first film in the trilogy is scheduled for release July 2, 2010. Shyamalan has storyboarded the entire live-action film twice, and his video presentation showed a series of hand-drawn landscapes — more traditional than the TV series’ anime style — mixed with stock action footage, including Asian warriors on horseback. A large part of the reported $250 million projected budget of the three-film series will be spent on CGI special effects.
With Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman in the audience, Paramount’s John Lesher and Rob Moore took the stage to discuss how Shyamalan brought them the project after his daughters’ enthusiasm proved contagious. Shyamalan, who said his family was disappointed after he turned down a Harry Potter film and another well-known franchise, said several times that the film’s religious subtext was what drew him to the project. “It has to be something I see God in,” he said. “I have a low action-fatigue level,” Shyamalan said after the event, when asked to explain why he hasn’t made many films outside his trademark thriller genre. “It can’t be ‘I want to hurt you.’ All the fighting has to have a reason behind it.”
Shyamalan estimates that the first Airbender will be about two hours long. He’s close to casting a set of young actors who will age with the story line, but said he’s committed to direct only the first film, set to be shot in Greenland and Vietnam. “I’ll need to rest after that,” he explained.
