Category: Geek Crush

This marks the 10 year anniversary of “I see dead people.” That prophetic sentence was first uttered on August 6, 1999 with the release of the phenomenon, THE SIXTH SENSE, and the career of M. Night Shyamalan was truly born. Today is M. Night Shyamalan’s birthday and the 10th anniversary of THE SIXTH SENSE. Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan was born on August 6, 1970 in Pondicherry, India and after his birth, his parents, both doctors, moved the family to the United States where Night and his sister, Veena, grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Night graduated from NYU film school and it was there that he made up the name “Night.” Shyamalan met his future wife, Bhavna Vaswani, a psychologist, in college. They married in 1993 and have two daughters.

Now while I realize that Night had previously directed PRAYING WITH ANGER (in film school) and WIDE AWAKE (1998), 1999’s THE SIXTH SENSE is assuredly his first successful foray into Hollywood. It tells the story about a boy who can communicate with the dead, desperately wanting the help of child psychologist, Bruce Willis, with underlying themes of faith and love of family. Make no mistake, it’s no coincidence that the film was released on Night’s birthday. Night totally believed in the film and thought that releasing it on his birthday was good luck. The movie eventually went on to do over $1 billion dollars in worldwide box office, TV rights, and DVD sales. It gave Night the right to final cut, when his movies would be released around the world, where he’d shoot his films, which actors would be hired, and how the trailers and posters would look. Most importantly, all his films would contain the “above the title credit “Written and Directed by M. Night Shyamalan.”

No other director can make that type of claim. THE SIXTH SENSE was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Director, Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Supporting Actor for Haley Joel Osment, and Best Supporting Actress for Toni Collette. It went 0 for 6 at the Oscars in 2000. The film’s worldwide gross was $672,806,292.

It seemed like everyone held their collective breath with the release of Night’s next film, UNBREAKABLE (2000). Once again starring Bruce Willis, it was the story of a ordinary man who discovers that he’s a superhero and draws the correlation between the real world and comic book myth. UNBREAKABLE went on to gross $248,118,121 worldwide.

With the release of SIGNS (2002), Newsweek crowned Night as the next Spielberg on their August 5, 2002 cover – the first director EVER on the cover of Newsweek, I might add. Producer Frank Marshall said, “SIGNS was more about faith and less about invading aliens and crop circles.” Night made tons of money for Disney and its shareholders with a whopping $408,247,917 in worldwide ticket sales.

The critics were like circling vultures, just waiting for Night to stumble and they thought he had with the release of THE VILLAGE (2004). An 1880’s village has to battle threats encircling them as well as within….what will bring out the dark side of people. Roger Ebert was beyond contempt when he wrote, “A colossal miscalculation, a movie based on a premise that cannot support it, a premise so transparent it would be laughable were the movie not so deadly solemn.” Jeez, why don’t you carve out the guy’s heart while you’re at it? It would see $256,697,520 worldwide.

In 2006, sportswriter, Michael Bamberger released “The Man Who Heard Voices: Or, How M. Night Shyamalan Risked His Career on a Fairy Tale.” It was a must-read that summer for M. Night devotees (me included). In the book, told from Night’s point-of-view and with his full cooperation, Bamberger followed him around and watched the production of LADY IN THE WATER from beginning to end and provided a fascinating look at one of Hollywood’s most imaginative directors.

LADY IN THE WATER (2006) was Night’s bedtime story about about a mythical creature who comes in contact with the tenants of an apartment complex and that everything happens for a purpose.

Certainly the most interesting part of the book is when Disney gave Night the brush off, like he was some 3rd rate hack director, and were very critical of his LADY IN THE WATER script. Feeling like they were rejecting him, Night promptly walked right over to Warner Brothers. Bamberger let the readers into the heart-breaking, challenging time for Shyamalan – he went through a lot of emotional garbage.

Okay, so LADY IN THE WATER was not your conventional 3-act play, but it was unique in that it was original and not some re-imagining or rehashing of someone else’s film. LADY IN THE WATER took in a modest $72,785,169.

THE HAPPENING (2008) was Night’s first R-rated movie and – shocker! – failed to impress most critics. Surprisingly, Roger Ebert loved the film and wrote, “Shyamalan’s approach is more effective than smash-and-grab plot-mongering…I suspect I’ll be in the minority in praising this film.” Night was very methodical in his story about the end of humans and how one man deals with his impending demise. Released on Friday the 13th, THE HAPPENING went on to gross $163,403,799 worldwide.

After watching the series with his family, Night decided upon Nickelodeon’s THE LAST AIRBENDER as his next film. The first of the fantasy trilogy, THE LAST AIRBENDER will be released on July 2, 2010. As with all his other movies, it will be written, directed, and produced by M. Night Shyamalan.

Some final points about the director. PRAYING WITH ANGER is the only one of Night’s films to be shot outside of Pennsylvania. Night is not afraid to cast himself in a cameo as Alfred Hitchcock always did in his films and he always collaborates with composer James Newton Howard for all his film scores. After the “gotcha” conclusion of THE SIXTH SENSE, Night’s name has become synonymous with the twist-ending. Even today, Shyamalan’s name alone still sells a movie and he has faith in everything he writes and directs. For an in-depth look at Night, check out this website on his films.

So from a fellow Leo, Happy Birthday to M. Night Shyamalan. “There Are No Coincidences.”