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Manoj Nelliattu Shyamalan (born August 6, 1970), known professionally as M. Night Shyamalan, is an Academy Award-nominated Indian American film writer, director, and producer. His biggest commercial success as of mid-2006 is the 1999 film The Sixth Sense, starring Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment, which has grossed over $600 million worldwide . Shyamalan, along with Jay Chandrasekhar, is one of several South Indian-diasporic descent filmmakers working in Hollywood. Like director Alfred Hitchcock, one of his idols, he is known for making cameo appearances in his films.
Early life and career Shyamalan was born in Mahé, Pondicherry, Kerala, India. When the film debuted at the Toronto Film Festival, Shyamalan was introduced by David Overbey who predicted that the world would see more of Shyamalan in the years to come. Praying with Anger has also been shown on Canadian television. Filmed in Chennai (Madras), it is his only film to be shot outside of Pennsylvania. Shyamalan wrote and directed his second movie, Wide Awake in 1995, though it was not released until 1998. His parents were the film's associate producers. The drama dealt with a 10-year-old Catholic schoolboy (played by Joseph Cross) who, after the death of his grandfather (Robert Loggia), searches for God. The film's supporting cast included Dana Delany and Denis Leary as the boy's parents, as well as Rosie O'Donnell, Julia Stiles, and Camryn Manheim. Wide Awake was filmed in a school Shyamalan attended as a child. , and earned 1999 Young Artist Award nominations for Best Drama, and, for Cross, Best Performance.. A commercial failure, the film grossed $305,704 in theaters. That same year Shyamalan wrote the screenplay for Stuart Little. In 1993, Shyamalan married Indian psychologist Bhavna Vaswani, a fellow student whom he'd met at NYU and with whom he has had two daughters. As of mid-2006, the family resides in Wayne, Pennsylvania, near Shyamalan's usual shooting site of Philadelphia. Multiple movies by M. Night Shyamalan are spoiled for you below. The Sixth Sense
Unbreakable Unbreakable is a naturalistic drama about David Dunn (Bruce Willis), the sole survivor of a train crash. He eventually meets comic-book collector Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), a mysterious mastermind who is convinced that Dunn has latent super powers. Budgeted at $75 million, it grossed $95 million domestically and $248 million worldwide. The film has since been referred to as Shyamalan's cult classic, being a common favorite with fans, as well as Shyamalan's own personal favorite. Signs
The Village
Lady in the Water Lady in the Water, released on July 21, 2006, is a fantasy about a Philadelphia apartment-complex maintenance man, Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti), who discovers a young woman named Story (Bryce Dallas Howard) in the swimming pool. Gradually, he and others in the complex learn that she is a water nymph who has come to "the world of man" to bring inspiration to someone in the complex. Her life is in danger from a vicious, wolf-like, mystical creature that tries to keep her from returning to her watery "blue world." The proposal for this film highlighted a severe rift between Shyamalan and Disney, the studio for which he had done his biggest previous films. In the book The Man Who Heard Voices: Or, How M. Night Shyamalan Risked His Career on a Fairy Tale by Sports Illustrated writer Michael Bamberger, Shyamalan said that he felt Disney "no longer valued individualism ... no longer valued fighters." Shyamalan left the studio after production president Nina Jacobson and others became highly critical of his script, which Warner Bros. eventually produced. Critical response was again negative — Frank Lovece of Film Journal International saying simply, "this Lady is the Showgirls of fantasy film" — disparaging both the inclusion of a film-critic character (one element of Shyamalan's screenplay that Disney found troublesome) and Shyamalan's decision to take such a large and personal role in the film as a writer whose work would change the world. The New York Post wrote that the film was "dead in the water", criticizing Shyamalan as a "crackpot with messianic delusions". Future Projects After the overall poor reception of Lady In The Water Shyamalan has said that his next film will be a "return to form", likely indicating that his next movie will be more along the lines of his blockbuster hits The Sixth Sense and Signs. On ABC's The View, Shyamalan stated that his next project was a science fiction piece in the realm of Michael Crichton, and that it has a big star attached to it. In addition, he has called his next project both his darkest and his most Hitchcockian. Saying, "The one I'm writing now, I really love those 1970s and 60s paranoia movies – The Andromeda Strain, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, so this new one is in that kind of vein." He has also stated his willingness to direct one of the last two Harry Potter films after not being able to take up the offer to direct the first one due to conflicts with the production of Unbreakable: "The themes that run through it...the empowering of children, a positive outlook...you name it, it falls in line with my beliefs," he said. "I enjoy the humor in it. When I read the first Harry Potter and was thinking about making it, I had a whole different vibe in my head of it. There would be a lot at stake emotionally. The teaching of magic would be desperately needed, there would be a lot riding on it." Box office gross Budget: $750,000 TOTAL LIFETIME GROSSES Domestic: $100,000 + Foreign: N/A = Worldwide: N/A Budget: $6,000,000 TOTAL LIFETIME GROSSES Domestic: $282,175 + Foreign: N/A = Worldwide: $282,175 Budget: $40,000,000 TOTAL LIFETIME GROSSES Domestic: $293,506,292 + Foreign: $379,300,000 = Worldwide: $672,806,292 Budget: $73,200,000 TOTAL LIFETIME GROSSES Domestic: $95,011,339 + Foreign: $153,106,782 = Worldwide: $248,118,121 Budget: $70,200,000 TOTAL LIFETIME GROSSES Domestic: $227,966,634 + Foreign: $180,281,283 = Worldwide: $408,247,917 Budget: $71,600,000 TOTAL LIFETIME GROSSES Domestic: $114,197,520 + Foreign: $142,500,000 = Worldwide: $256,697,520 Budget: $70,000,000 TOTAL LIFETIME GROSSES (through 8/17/2006) Domestic: $42,285,169 + Foreign: $30,200,000 = Worldwide: $72,485,169 sources: * The Smoking Gun IMDb rediff.com Miscellaneous Shyamalan has been approached to collaborate on several movies with strong fan bases, the most notable of which was the fourth Indiana Jones film. This would have given Shyamalan a chance to work with his longtime idol, Steven Spielberg. Shyamalan turned down the opportunity, claiming it was too "tricky" to get everyone on the same page and that it just "was not the right thing" for him to do. However, Shyamalan seems to have since changed his mind on collaborations, stating that he would like to direct the seventh Harry Potter film, claiming that the relationship between the characters interested him. * Other media
Sci Fi Channel hoax In 2004, Shyamalan was involved in a media hoax with the Sci Fi Channel, which when eventually uncovered by the press prompted Sci Fi's parent company, NBC-Universal, to denounce the undertaking as "not consistent with our policy at NBC. We would never intend to offend the public or the press and value our relationship with both". American Express commercial An American Express television commercial directed by as well as starring M. Night Shyamalan debuted during the 2006 Oscars. The spot takes place in a restaurant with several eerie events happening in quick succession. After these events unfold, a waitress approaches Shyamalan, jolting him out of what seems to have been a daydream, and tells him how much she loves his films. Shyamalan, in a voice-over, says, "My life is about finding time to dream, that's why my card is American Express," as he goes to a different restaurant to find other things to dream about. Criticism A general criticism of Shyamalan is that he is a better director than he is a screen writer. He has also been labeled a "one-trick pony" for his continual use of the "twist" element in his screenplays. After the release of "The Village" Slates Michael Agger noted that Shyamalan's was following "An uncomfortable pattern" of "making fragile, sealed-off movies that fell apart when exposed to outside logic." Additionally M. Night Shyamalan has been criticized as being conceited for using his name before every one of his films, e.g. "M. Night Shyamalan's The Village." * In recent years, M. Night Shyamalan has been accused of plagiarism. It has been noted that The Sixth Sense resembles the Orson Scott Card novel Lost Boys. Robert McIlhinney, a Pennsylvania screenwriter, sued Shyamalan over the similarity of Signs to his unpublished script "Lord Of The Barrens"*. Margaret Peterson Haddix considered a lawsuit after it was noted that The Village had many elements found in her novel Running Out of Time. * See also | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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