My Shyamalan theory...

So you have this rich kid. Told he can be whatever he wants in life. He's wants to be Steven Spielberg. He goes to a good school and with the help of his parents he's directed two feature films and he's still in his early 20's. Only problem is they both suck. It gets even worse because the second film gets picked up by MirrorMax in production and they too know it;s a turd and shelve it. Night kicks up and fuss and already this young guy in town has pretty much found himself in movie jail. This was never part of the plan. He's a genius after all.

So he decides he's write himself out of movie jail. He's write a script so good they have to let him direct it. And what do you know? He does it. Writes a script and the first draft gets him the best part of a million bucks along with him down to direct... But it never happens... lead actors come and go and the project dies... He takes writing work. Ends up working hard and for the first time he has to sit down and write draft after draft of something for a studio until he gets it right. and he does. He nails Stuart Little and his draft gets it green lit and it's a hit bringing him another fine pay day along with it.

Now he can relax a little. time to really write his way out of directors jail. It needs to be so good he's hired to direct and that it will lock down a major movie star so as to get the green light.

So he writes a script called the Sixth Sense. It's about a crime scene photographer and a serial killer.. and ghosts leaving clues. And the cops son is somehow finding these clues... It's an okay movie. In the past the M. Night genius director side of him would be more than happy to take that script and shoot it...

But he's no longer in the genius director mode. He's in screenwriter mode. He needs these script to be PERFECT. So he rewrites and rewrites until the writer side of him is happy then and only then he can go out and be confident as the director side of him to sell and pitch it to the world... and he does.

Within weeks he gets everything he wanted. They buy the script for a couple of million and hire him to direct. Willis signs on weeks later and the green light soon after. He's still only like 27-28.

They make it and he knocks it out of the park. Makes a fortune. world wide mega hit. He's a super star. Time for the next movie.

He has been working on unbreakable for a while. A more traditional narrative for this down to earth superhero story. But he takes what he learns from Sixth Sense. Takes his time. rewrites. slows it down. strips out some of the bigger genre elements... decides there's enough story there in the first act for an entire feature.. He finishes and off he goes to make unbreakable.. Does okay.

I think from this point on there's a clear line where we can see the GENIUS DIRECTOR side of him took charge of the serious screenwriter. It feels like he started shooting his first drafts. No doubt he has talents as a director but they were always heavily supported by the hard work the writer did..

So now he's onto Signs.. a movie that gets through I feel less so on script and more directorial skill... And what happens? He has another major world wide hit. From this point on that hardworking screenwriter is dead.

Why put in all that hard work in the early stage when the director is just so fuckin talented.

I think this is how shite like The Village and The Lady In the Water happened. He's so convinced of his own skills as a filmmaker he's betrayed what once made him great... or at least.. really, really good.

That's my theory anyway.

It truly offended me that Aang's arc was changed from "kid who wants to be a kid slowly learning how to be the responsible saviour of the world" to "kid who is totally emo and eventually gets over the fact that everyone wants to worship his awesome innate abilities". The show made a big deal that the abilities the characters gain are earned, not just there, and none of that was in the movie.

Also the dearth of humour.

Awesome!

And where are the MP3s we asked for...?

"Life is about movies; anything else is a bonus!"- Me   

Yay! (Though now it will be stuck in my head)

I ask this as well.

Hey Teague.

All true as far as I'm aware. Just stuff pieced together from interviews and stuff over the years.

Weird to think of the movie Sixth Sense might have been.

After listening to this commentary, I kind of want to watch this film.

I wonder if there was another uncredited writer on 6th sense, it seems too tight.

Interesting. And, I have to admit, very anime. Space Battleship Yamato (Star Blazers) didn't become a hit until they edited 26 episodes into two hours. It even beat Star Wars at the box office. Giving the show this much movie time is cheating, though. You have two and a half hours to cover the entire season. Go.