Village Idiot of the Week (07/26 – 08/01)

M. Night Shyamalan

For many filmmakers, it takes years of hard work and discipline to achieve the status of celebrity.  Especially when it comes to writers and directors, when the general public knows your name, chances are you’ve made it to the top.  However, there is a rare occasion when a special project comes along at just the right moment and propels a new filmmaker to the top tier.  Well, in 1999 a movie was released towards the end of the summer, when things generally begin to slow down, called The Sixth Sense. This film became a certified blockbuster and proved to everyone that movies released at the summer’s end could be just as big as those released around the huge moneymaking time surrounding Memorial Day and The 4th of July.  Without a doubt, the massive success of The Sixth Sense had much to do with its inventive plot, and its famous twist ending.  The credit for The Sixth Sense was rightfully given to its very young writer/director M. Night Shyamalan.  After The Sixth Sense, many wondered just how big Shyamalan’s career would get, and many wondered if he may be the next Steven Spielberg.  Well, it’s been 11 years since Haley Joel Osment saw dead people, and Shyamalan has progressed from the next great moviemaker to a colossal punchline who seems to be completely delusional when it comes to his recent work.

Now, it is very common for a filmmaker to fall into a slump every now and again.  I mean, even Oliver Stone worked for years on his dream project about Alexander the Great, and the result was the total disaster that was Alexander.  However, Shyamalan has fallen so deep into a never ending sea of flops, it’s almost impossible to imagine him ever reaching the point he was at during the release of The Sixth Sense.  With films such as The Village, Lady in the Water, and The Happening, Shyamalan has given audiences everywhere some of the biggest disappointments in recent memory.  Shyamalan’s latest film The Last Airbender not only proved to be a critical and comercial disappointment, but it angered fans of the original series so much, he has every right to fear for his own safety.

So, a few years back, when Shyamalan was making Lady in the Water, he got into a very public debate with the folks over at Disney concerning various points that he wanted to make.  He was very public about things that he thought were quite groundbreaking about his project that the people at Disney said were just plain dumb.  Now, how awesome would it have been for this young hot-shot to go to another studio, make his movie the way he wanted it to be made, and show the corporate fat-cats at Disney just how wrong they were about his artistic vision?  It really is too bad that everything that Disney said about his movie was 100% correct.  This proved to be a total public relations nightmare for the director, and I really didn’t think that Shyamalan could do anything to damage his reputation any more than that.  However, I may have been proven wrong this week, when Shyamalan totally lost his mind at a recent press conference relating to The Last Airbender in Mexico.

Now, for a reporter to flat-out tell Shyamalan everything that everyone has been thinking and saying about him is quite the ballsy move.  And when this reporter brought up the seemingly downward spiral his career has been in over the last few years, Shyamalan at first seemed to respond with a perfectly placed smart-aleck remark that would have not only shut the reporter down, but maybe actually gained him a bit of street credit.  Then, Shyamalan kept speaking, and then he kept speaking, and as the filmmaker continued to ramble, his perfect comeback made a disastrous turn into total lunacy.  Hey, M. Night, no matter how many times you tell us how awesome Lady in the Water was, I’m pretty sure you’re not going to change the fact that the movie was terrible.  And I would absolutely LOVE to attend a college that teaches a class based on The Happening.  I can only imagine what the finals would be like….

1. What is the title of The Happening?

–The Happening.

2.  What happens in The Happening?

–Nothing Fucking Happens.

I really do sincerely hope that Shyamalan eventually finds his way out of the disaster that his career has become, I really do.  I hate to see anyone’s career fall apart the way his has.  However, the mere fact that when I went to see Inception, the sold out crowd seemed genuinely fascinated by a trailer for Devil…and once the name M. Night Shyamalan appeared the entire crowd (no exaggeration) busted out laughing, shows that M. Night has quite a long way to go to regain his reputation.  So, for making a total ass of himself at this Mexican press conference (watch it below…you won’t believe your eyes) and for becoming a cautionary tale in Hollywood for what not to do, The Village Elders present the latest Village Idiot Award to M. Night Shyamalan….what a twist!!