I'm a little shocked that this hasn't come up yet. I know we have discussed the film ad nausea in the other thread, but now that it is officially going to open under 20 mill, what went wrong in your opinion? I just think Shyamalan began to read his own press clippings and thought he could make any kidn of film and people would flock to it. Clearly he was mistaken. I haven't seen this one, but i can tell you the reason i haven't is because i hated The Village so much and this one just looked silly. The commercials didn't make it clear as to what it was about and the marketing otherwise just made it look as convoluted as can be. Plus when i read that internet article about his previous financier baulking at the film and his susbequent reaction, it made me want to see it even less.

Thoughts?

The TV ads are great and the movie's misterious plot makes me wanna see this even more. The Village was very good. M. Night is one hell of a filmmaker.

It went wrong from the films conception. Disney baulked at doing the movie for a reason and M Night thinking he was bigger than the studio - decided to jump ship. So he made a film that doesnt look good, got horrible reviews and comes off the dissapointment that was Th Village. I think this will hit im where it hurts and is only good for him. Maybe he can do Unbreakable 2 - or try a nre genre. I think people are getting tired of his supernatural schtick. He's becoming a one trick pony and thats hurting him artistically. Time to recapture the spark that made him a star with Sixth Sense and Unreakable.

On a side note - I usually am WB's biggest detractor - but I doubt any studio could have gotten this one to $30m.

M. Night Shyamalan.

I agree, it doesn't matter what studio took this on, there was no chance it was going to do well. The damage had already been done. As for his next project, I would love to see a sequel to Unberakable.

The Village, that's what went wrong.

Post of the day!! Okay, shut the thread down now. Nothing else needs to be said.

the borderline insane shyamalan found a studio that was naive enough to produce his latest messianic crapfest. now both warner and the "artist" shyamalan are fucked, as he continues to ruin his name.

Coming soon:

M. Night Shyamalan's Crucixifion, starring Shyamalan as Jesus.

I would be first in line.

Shyamalan went wrong. Either narcissism or a hatred of his audience and the expectations set for his work.

its going to happen soon, mel gibson could serve as the producer.

Actually, I don't think there's alot left to be ruined.

Okay stop man, you're killing me tonight!!!!!!!

his ego got too big.

i agree, shyamalan is a terrible, grotesque name. maybe he should just call himself alan smithee?

Mel Gibson Presents:

M Night SHyamalan's Crucifixion of M. Night Shyamalan,

Starring M. Night as M. Night

co-starring Dark Shape as
Judas

and baumer as the man with the whip

Coming summer of 2008

Plot summary of The Passion of the Shyamalan:

the Christ aka the Shyamalan is led to the path of saving humanity via his visions of Mary, who is actually dead. The roman governer Pilate, who is secretly an alien narf, persecutes his followers of the Shyamalan becuase they believe in the power of the autuer. At a special meeting, Pilate and his associates, known as the Elders of Zion, decide that the Shyamalan and his followers must be stopped, for they may discover there is not outside world, nor anyplace called "Rome". Jacobsen, er... Pilate sends her, er..his studio minions and critics, er...roman legionaires to sieze the Shyamalan at a diner known as "The Last Supper". Only those wearing tinfoil covered yamulkes are saved from siezure. But in the end, the crucifixion fails because the Shyamalan is unbreakable. An Eagle comes and devours all those who did not believe in the power of the Shyamalan.

The Shyamalan movies since The Sixth Sensehave been part of a sort of franchise. The Village was the franchise's Superman III, andf Lady in the Water was its Quest for Peace.

Basically, the previous installment sucked, and the new one didn't look any better.

So Night's days as a draw are pretty much history.

I posted this a month ago, but its probably worth mentioning here:

I'll be completely honest, I don't know HOW this can do well. It has so many things against it.

- It's coming off of a film which had the 2nd worst legs ever for $50 m + openers (behind only the Hulk).
- Less known stars than M. Night's usual.
- BV dumped M. Night over the project, and WB took it over instead. Something about that isn't encouraging...
- Bad wom for the Village.
- Confusing marketing.
- Not a thriller apparently, and alot of people will go to see with the wrong expectations, which will only hurt its wom.
- Bryce Howard's presence is another direct link to the Village.
- People tired of his films being the exact same style each time.

The only thing that can save this film imo is quality, and legs if its a superb film.


It's a bit sad though, the grosses of his films have been getting cut in half:

Signs $$227,966,634
The Village $114,197,520 (50.000% less)
Lady In The Water $57.1 m (50% less)

Though LITW will probably end up making less than that total. If this pace keeps up, his next film would do $29 m. So he DEFINITELY needs to do something completely different asap.

No stars for one thing. M Night likes to act like he's the reason people go to his movies but his two biggest hits had Mel Gibson and Bruce Willis. That's not the only factor but it contributed.

bruce willis aint exactly a huge draw. famous, but his list of flops is longer then my......well its long.

I think though, as the Village proved, M. Night really didn't need any stars for his films, but they certainly help matters. But a $51 opening weekend, with Joaquin Phoenix and Howard, it was really M. Night's name that brought that type of opening. It would have helped matters, but 99.99% of this film's failure was due to his last film's failure.

Nothing could really have salvaged the film's opening weekend, although its total could have been good if, as O said, it was actually a very good/excellent film with great WOM (and thus had great legs).


What went wrong with the film was firstly, its terribly confusing marketing; secondly, its storyline, which under the best of circumstances is not particularly appealing (compare that to seeing dead people or fighting aliens or a village haunted by monsters-exciting!); thirdly, the Shyamalan brand was considerably hurt by The Village's disastrous WOM, and should no longer be used to advertise a film ('Bruckheimer', for example, is almost always a reliable name entertainment-wise) and there weren't any appealing stars to compensate for Night's damaged reputation (Giamatti is a rather ugly man, and Bryce Dallas Howard is not a star).


What he needs to do is move beyond his usual formula, which evidentally is not working for him any longer, by taking on a different project, preferrably based on a screenplay that is not his. The more difficult, but correct, path would be to get down to basics, maybe take on smaller films, build up his reputation and credentials, and then go back to making bigger films (given that 'Lady' has bombed, he might not have an option).


Maybe it would be good of us to keep in mind that he still has two hugely successful films under his belt, both commerical and critical successes. He's still just 36 years old, which is nothing when it comes to directors.

He also does have a fanbase, while its shrinking, he still has one. With 2 $200 m + movies under his belt, he still will be given opportunities, but he won't have as much freedom. IMO, I think he MUST do a collaboration with people like Tim Burton, Robert Rodriguez, and Tarantino, and start to open up a bit more rather than being so closed up. IMO, if he wants to make a return to the genre, he needs to do some type of collaboration, with a big star, and open a film in October, for Halloween. I think he should try another genre, but when he's ready again, he should definitely open his comeback film close to Halloween, and do more collaborations. People are more than forgiving in this genre close to Halloween.