M KNIGHT's The Happening

Zak Forsman said:
i understand people who want to punch holes in shyamalan's public persona, need to define and shape it into a simplistic image that fits their need for an easy target.
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But don't you see how much easy fodder he gives people? The Wachowski's just put out the biggest flop of their career, probably more disastrous financially than Lady In The Water, but you don't see the media tearing them down the way they did M Night. It's because they don't put their name above the title, don't act badly in their own films, don't write self involved memoirs about how badly the studios treat them, and BARELY do interviews.
 
so what? if you want to gossip about Night, feel free. I'm not sure Night is the one who needs to make a decision here.
 
Zak Forsman said:
i understand people who want to punch holes in shyamalan's public persona, need to define and shape it into a simplistic image that fits their need for an easy target.
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oh but he gives us so many oppotunities. :)

zak, you should become night's publicist. defending movies that you haven't even seen!

whether it's himself or someone he influences indirectly, the point is, Night portarys himself in the movie as the man responsible for saving the world (simplistic assessment? yes - but we're talking about the man who killed off his aliens in Signs with glasses of water. Not exactly high-minded stuff).
 
Zak Forsman said:
so what? if you want to gossip about Night, feel free. I'm not sure Night is the one who needs to make a decision here.
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But you don't even need to gossip. He lays it all out there. That's like Britney Spears complaining it's the media's fault for putting pictures of her bare crotch as she steps out of a limo on the internet. If she didn't want that out there then she shouldn't have left the house without any underwear on!
 
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the moment we move beyond a critique of the film, we are engaged in gossip. this says a lot more about us than it does him. and just because he allows the documentary filmmaker who made My Architect to put him at the center of a mockumentary (just like Zak Penn did with Werner Herzog), and just because his name is above the title on marketing materials (just like John Carpenter's), and just because he acts in his films (as countless others have), doesn't mean he's responsible for how we choose to react to it.
 
Zak Forsman said:
the moment we move beyond a critique of the film, we are engaged in gossip. this says a lot more about us than it does him. and just because he allows the documentary filmmaker who made My Architect to put him at the center of a mockumentary (just like Zak Penn did with Werner Herzog), and just because his name is above the title on marketing materials (just like John Carpenter's), and just because he acts in his films (as countless others have), doesn't mean he's responsible for how we choose to react to it.
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He has a choice on whether or not to do those things, and if he does, he has to accept the consequence that douchebags out there are going to rag on him for it. Personally, I don't see what he has to gain out of it. It can only hurt people's perception of his films, his box office and his reputation. If his movies can't stand on their own without such assistance than he should make better films.
 
turning m. night shyamalan into a brand is why his films have made $1.66 billion. even if the perception is largely negative, the name recognition and publicity doesn't hurt.
 
Zak Forsman said:
turning m. night shyamalan into a brand is why his films have made $1.66 billion. even if the perception is largely negative, the name recognition and publicity doesn't hurt.
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So the films themselves have nothing to do with his success???? I highly doubt his "brand" has added much to the box office of his films. 90 percent of the filmgoing public doesn't care who made the movie. The 10 percent that does, would already know he made it even if his name wasn't in the title. I think it hurts far more than it helps at this point. Spielberg has managed to make himself an industry brand without resorting to such shenanigans.
 
most of the film going public knows the shyamalan "brand". it creates an marketable expectation. most don't think of his cameos, or the obscure mockumentary he had on the sci-fi channel years ago, or that his falling out with disney was even a news item. they think suspense. they think twist ending. they associate his name with a certain expectation. it's you and me who take it a step further because we are actively engaged with the soap opera of making movies.

but the public at large knows just enough that you can advertise the happening with his name above it instead of "from the writer-director of the sixth sense". it's not like these things aren't tested to death by the studios before moving forward.
 
Out of curiosity, Zack, what is your opinion of M. Night's movies? I've noticed you defending him a lot, but I realized I had no idea how you personally felt about his films.

Also, why didn't you see Lady In The Water? I'd assume you'd want to see a movie you worked so extensively on. Did the story just not interest you? Was what you saw on set not enough to get you into the theater?
 
c.g._eads said:
Out of curiosity, Zack, what is your opinion of M. Night's movies? I've noticed you defending him a lot, but I realized I had no idea how you personally felt about his films.

Also, why didn't you see Lady In The Water? I'd assume you'd want to see a movie you worked so extensively on. Did the story just not interest you? Was what you saw on set not enough to get you into the theater?
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think of it this way. my job is to tell the story of making a film. watching the finished movie is not vital to telling that story. in many ways, it could be a hinderance. besides, usually what happens is we're already done with the first cut of our doc(s) before there is a final cut of the feature. deadlines for dvd/blu-ray content usually coincide with the theatrical release.

as for my opinion of his films. all you need to know is that i'm a hard sell on most movies that come out of the mainstream. a very hard sell. some might say impossible.
 
i liked all his films except lady in the water and the village. i may see the happening this weekend but everybody is saying it's not so good.

someone posted this online at another website and i almost fell out laughing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWWtb2uDDfE

it's sad people look at him as gimmicky. i think he's a great story teller personally. i like his writing also, scripts are always very easy reads.
 
Zak Forsman said:
think of it this way. my job is to tell the story of making a film. watching the finished movie is not vital to telling that story. in many ways, it could be a hinderance. besides, usually what happens is we're already done with the first cut of our doc(s) before there is a final cut of the feature. deadlines for dvd/blu-ray content usually coincide with the theatrical release.

as for my opinion of his films. all you need to know is that i'm a hard sell on most movies that come out of the mainstream. a very hard sell. some might say impossible.
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Yeah, that's how I've kind of seen you. Sort of anti-Hollywood (in your opinions and your work) That's why I'm so surprised when you bring up the box office of his movies. I think we can both agree that box office has very little to do with the actual quality of a film.
 
Shyamalan added that he worries The Happening will be so good that people might not even realize it. “If something happens during the movie and you think, ‘That’s dumb,’ it’ll be because whatever happened was actually too amazing for you to fully understand, or possibly a metaphor for something really crazy and cool,” said Shyamalan.

wow.
 
c.g._eads said:
Shyamalan added that he worries The Happening will be so good that people might not even realize it. “If something happens during the movie and you think, ‘That’s dumb,’ it’ll be because whatever happened was actually too amazing for you to fully understand, or possibly a metaphor for something really crazy and cool,” said Shyamalan.

wow.
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I think that part of the article was "The Onion-like" satire, and not words he actually spoke.
 
everything in the gray box is from a legitimate interview attributed to Yahoo news. but everything that follows "shyamalan added..." is made up. filmdrunk adds Onion-esque commentary to their articles.
 
Having only liked SS and UNBRKLE, I'm gonna see this movie and give a judgement. I haven't like any of his films since those two but I'm not gonna let the hate I have for him blind the review. expect to read something later today.
 
Wow, did Shyamalan actually say “If something happens during the movie and you think, ‘That’s dumb,’ it’ll be because whatever happened was actually too amazing for you to fully understand."

Maybe Shyamalan thinks he's really really smart and just isn't. I mean, the phenomenon that was The Sixth Sense might make a lot of mortals feel god-like. To have had that sort of success brands you a genius and everyone caters to you like one. The truth, however, may be he's an average mortal with average intelligence who sorta got lucky. The jury is still out.

And even though it was dumb of him to say it (if he did say it), there is the possibilty there's some truth in it too. The book "Blink" talked about how we tend to have trouble with things that are really groundbreaking. Art that is revolutionary often makes us uncomfortable, and there can be adverse reactions in audiences, and only later is the art revealed to be something that is "genius" which we just needed time to come to appreciate. I would hope the artist (Shyamalan) himself wouldn't be the one to say it though! I mean it's up to audiences and time to determine if something is "amazing," not the word of the director himself.

Reminds me of when I was working at a broadcaster, and the pitches I would get from aspriing writers on the phone--the ones who said "you have to read this script, it's amazing, and better than anything you've ever read"--I quickly learned that anyone who said that had actually just written a particularly atrocious script.
 
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