Scott. Everytime this trailer has come on during the beginning of inception people audibly groan in the theaters. No joke.

http://justjared.buzznet.com/2010/07/17/last-airbender-berlin/

http://riskybusiness.hollywoodreporter.com/2010/07/20/m.-night-shyamalan-devil-last-airbende/

Yeah, I've been tracking the blowback that is currently happening toward / against Shymalan. Thanks for the links. I'll promote them to the OP.

Too true. I saw the trailer (pre Inception) in a small town NJ theater while my friend saw it in midtown Manhattan and this happened to both of us.

Gotta lay off the ego-juice. And how about directing something he hasn't written. C'mon, M. Knight. All the great directors go that route who once proved their own prowess as a writer-director.

Anyone who doubts for a second, this guy isn't just one more film away from a home-run is foolish, but if he doesn't begin to stop the WRITTEN/DIRECTED/PRODUCED and even freaking STARRING ego nonsense, the task gets that much harder.

Get development people you will listen to, Night... even star athletes benefit from a great coach.

Pulling for him... and I'm a fan who gave up watching his films after LADY, which to me, was utter nonsense and self-indulgent.

C'mon, Night... easy on the "brand" and just make us some entertaining escapism.

Well. He took a half-step in that direction (non-M. Night-original-ideas) when he wrote Airbender and look what happened. Middle America starts (resumes?) cursing his name, but M. Night watches the domestic tally hit ~120 million (internationally will end up what...twice that?) Not that box office should justify the continuation of his rather quickly inflating ego--but maybe the studios and Night/his agent will start to like the look of M. Night as a director for-hire all of a sudden. Because as absolutely silly as his past three movies have been, it would be a terrible mistake to say that someone as obviously talented as he is will never ever ever make a good movie for the rest of his life. So. I'm pulling for him. Don't make The Happening again. But I'm pulling for him.

Also, I dig that premise. Is his name alone enough to make people laugh in a theater? He's not even directing it. I groan in a theater when I see Brett Ratner's name on a trailer, I guess. But. The contained thriller market was crowded already, but who knew the elevator-thriller market would suddenly get crowded? DOWN and this seem eerily similar. Of all the genres to double up in the same year, who would have thought it would be movies about 19th Century magicians (Illusionist and The Prestige) and people-trapped-in-elevator movies?

Watch Quentin Tarantino interview with Charlie Rose in 1994.

He said that the reason that good directors start to lose their talent or their filmmaking power is that they stop caring.

That's what happened to Night. Just look at The Happening.

Very weak effort. I bet everyone down here can do better than that.

How about someone like Night who has 2 Oscar nominations?

He just doesn't give a damn anymore. From the writing or the directing, he just really don't give a shit. Compare him to Chris Nolan. Both are the same age. Night went to film school while Nolan is self-taught.

Night has his first hit way before Nolan.

The main difference is that Chris Nolan took all his steps with great care and focus. He wrote in Inception in ten years for God's sake!

Night on the other hand took his success for granted.

I believe the reason that Night stopped caring is because his movie Lady in the Water. The movie apparently meant a lot to him. See the interviews.

Tarantino said in this interview that the reason the filmmaker stops caring is that usually he makes a film that's so personal to him and means a lot to him and then it's not well received. Whether he done a good job or a bad job but it's just not well received.

This case applied to Lady in The Water.


Success has unfortunately changed him to the worse, See this interview. He speaks as an auteur as someone who cares.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CpEpPbc4g8

All this disappeared in him. What a waste.