A couple of weeks ago M. Night Shyamalan’s next project was announced, and for him it wasn’t good news. After two massive stinkers in a row, he’s now stuck making a Nickelodeon movie called Avatar: The Last Airbender. No, it has nothing to do with the movie James Cameron is making. That’s Avatar. No colon. At the time, I surmised that he wasn’t adapting Saturday morning cartoons into movies willingly. The project sounded like the kind of thing a guy would only do if he has no other options. Well, maybe I was right.
Variety and several other different sources are now reporting that M. Night has been shopping around an original script he wrote called The Green Effect. The movie is supposed to be about a global, environmental crisis which turns into a struggle to survive for mankind. I think I liked this movie better when it was called The Day After Tomorrow.
And apparently so did Hollywood, because nobody wants it. If you’re wondering why the once celebrated M. Night is stuck making Nickelodeon movies it truly looks like it’s because he can’t get another gig. He put his script on the table, and the big studios walked away and left it sitting there. Night had similar problems with Lady in the Water, which he originally had set up at Disney. But Disney dumped it, because quite frankly they hated it. They asked him to rethink it. Instead, M. Night went on a power trip, used his name to get someone else to make it. It bombed, everyone else hated it, and now his name isn’t enough to get another stinker made.
The great news if, like me, you’re a fan of the work Shyamalan did before he went completely nuts, is that he’s apparently learned his lesson. Getting stuck with a cartoon to live action adaptation seems to have already humbled him. When Disney told him his script sucked, he thumbed his nose at them. This time, word is that he left his rejection meeting with a positive attitude and a stack of ideas and notes which he plans to use on a rewrite. With a little luck, Avatar: The Last Airbender could be the best thing that ever happened to Night. Watch and see what he does after he’s done working for the makers of Gak.
