Shyamalan Denies That His Career is Going Downhill

Posted by on July 27th, 2010   Filed under: Fandom, Gossip
Source: Den of Geek!

Since the release of M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film, the big screen adaptation of Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender, he has been taking a lot of heat from his critics. Yes, his popularity has been on a steady decline with some as early in his career as Unbreakable, and distaste for the man and his movies hit new heights with The Happening, but only recently have journalists been comfortable telling Night that he sucks right to his face.

For the most part, these open criticisms haven’t seemed to make a big dent in Shyamalan’s self-image. In fact, I’ve read several such interviews over the past month and in most cases Night has been able to deflect or spin or change the subject. He does the same here, but is unable to mask his anger.

At a recent foreign press conference, a reporter tells Shyamalan straight-up: “The audience has lost faith in your work […] Airbender feels like you want to captivate the audiences again by becoming more commercial.” To which Night answers, among other things, “If I thought like you, I would kill myself.” Guess what? We’ve got the video after the jump!

Check out the video and revel in the gut-turning discomfort. My favorite parts are the nervous looks between Night and Jackson Rathbone (the Twilight Saga star who plays Sokka in Airbender) as they realize where this question is going.

Yes, this journalist is saying exactly what we are all thinking. But at the same time, it is pretty rude and unprofessional, especially in a press-conference situation. What is he supposed to say to a comment like that in such a public forum?

For me, Shyamalan has to be respected just for the amount of care and specificity he puts into each of his projects. He is not a jobber. He seems to take his art seriously. That is more than can be said of 75% of directors out there. On the other hand, his films are often riddled with problems and Airbender seems to be the film that tipped the scales on his good film to bad film ratio for most people.

What do you think? Was the journalist justified in being so blunt? Is M. Night Shyamalan in denial about his career or did he convince you that he is a misunderstood auteur?



  • The Man

    The village is one of a few films besides lady in the water that I wanted to walk out if. And I was a huge M.Night fan. Loved the his first three movies, his films were an event for me. He has gone down hill for me at least. Although I didn’t mind the happening, it worked better than the pervious two films.

    That being said I did think it was pretty shitty to ask that but, you can tell by his answer that it keeps him up at night.

    Th

  • Els

    He is a good director. He makes fun movies. Who cares if the ‘twist’ doesn’t meet everybody’s expectations, what he does is create a fun and entertaining film and there aren’t many directors like that anymore.

  • schizopolis

    “In England, they’re teaching a class on The Happening”. What a douchebag! lol Please name that special needs school in England. No retard should ever go to that school! LMAO

  • that is really interesting and so different than how Joss Whedon handled “veiled criticism” about Dollhouse at Comic Con this week. Joss took a humorous natural, “I tried, you win some, lose some” attitude.

    http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/07/26/comic-con-jj-abrams-and-joss-whedon-part-2/

    Here Night could have taking many different approaches to the question (the obvious being to fake misunderstanding of the interpretation) yet he attacks the questioner’s view of life/art interpretation?!

  • Jason

    I’ve never cared for Shyamalan’s work. Sixth Sense was the only one that I remotely liked. After watching enough of his films and interviews, I’ve come to the conclusion, or perhaps opinion, that he is a self-important, pompous ass. After Signs, I decided to never again waste my time with his crap.

    And his reaction to this woman’s question comes off as immature and childish… like something I’d hear a pre-teen mall-rat hanging out at Hot Topic say.

  • Mike from Buffalo

    Of course he’s going to give a snotty comeback, it was a snotty question. So he’s arrogant. So what? What director isn’t? George Lucas, Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez. All arrogant. I assume you have to be to survive the overall arrogance and bullying of Hollywood execs and producers.

    I haven’t seen Airbender & I certainly wasn’t a fan of The Happening or Lady in the Water. But I thought his first four films were great.

    And I’ll say this, he still is the best director when comes to pure suspense. In my book had he directed The Unborn or Orphan, they would be horror perfection.

  • 1138

    The “Devil” trailer that runs in front of Chris Nolan’s Inception gets terrible reactions. I’ve seen Inception twice in two different theaters and each time, when M Knight’s name comes up in the opening trailer credits, people burst out laughing or booing! The guy is getting little to no respect nowadays.

    Is it well deserved? yeah I think so to a certain degree. I kind of feel like he bought into his own hype considering he just had a promising career…not a body of work one would call revolutionary. The fact that he displays so little humility and retains a rather defensive ego kinda turns people off. Granted Directors have to have strong healthy egos in order to survive the business, but I do believe the great ones address their own shortcomings in order to advance their own greatness. I don’t think Knight is capable of that.

  • TheAllKnowingGod

    The Happening made more than Lady in the water and Airbender made more than The Happening so I’d say his career is on the up.

  • Dave

    I walked out of The Happening, Lady in the Water, and Signs. I learned late that this guy sucks. I thought that the 6th sense was good, not great. He tries to be impressive and comes off as a dirtbag director who is following the career of Kevin Costner (another guy that is out of work by his own work). The sooner Sham the Scam is out of the business, the better the movie industry will be. With Air Bender, I took my wife to it because she wanted to see it, but we both walked out about half way trough. It’s the last Sham the Scam movie she’ll see, by her own words, as she learned her lesson – “This guy needs medical help, I think.”

  • /\\/\/\/\why don’t u go take a walk

  • Who walks out of movies?

  • Austin

    He’s in denial! The reporter shouldn’t slam that fact to his face but his answer to that question was very unprofesional. With his anger he’s proving that she’s right. This video doesn’t make him look good.

  • Devie

    I cant believe that someone would have the gall to disrespect a man to takes huge steps with his movies. Hes very aware they wont please everyone. Personally I like his movies.. they grasp deep emotional concepts. I dont think he tries to reach a specific audience but tries to send a meassage to everyone…whether they get it or not .. well thats their own shallow interpretations..Im not a huge fan his or anything but he doesnt deserve that. Airbender was T.V. series that was split into three books four chapters a piece. I watched it with my son so I know what was in and not in the movie.. it was pretty good. The only thing I regret is not being able to take my boys to go see the next one. Im sure after those reviews another wont be made.

  • Ecem

    Shymalan is an amazing director. He makes a movie with his eternal imagination. He is not just after the money, he wants to live a sign behind him. He wants to make an art. But there arent many art lovers around the world. Thats why Shyamalan has too many haters. He is right, “If I thought like you, I would kill myself.”…

    If I was a art hater like you I wouldve hate shymalan too. So its ok :) Good luck.

  • Steve

    The best thing you can do to a creative person is be honest with them. Otherwise they’ll get lost in a world of yes-men and millions of dollars and eventually turn into George Lucas.

    I wouldn’t say M Night Shyamalan is creatively spent, everyone has their off-days. Oliver Stone made Alexander after all. And I don’t think any director goes out with the intention of making a bad movie. If he got lost somewhere along the making of The Last Airbender, then we should all hope he finds his mojo and gets back to making interesting movies.

  • Kurei

    The problem is that he’s too overhyped, so people expect way too much from him. the journalist hits the nail on the head when she says his movies are personal, and anything that is too personal becomes easily criticized. His movies are a mixed bag thats for sure, but they always bring something fresh to the table, I didn’t like The Happening but I loved the premise and idea of the film.

    He is one of the few directors out there that I look forward to each of his work no matter how bad critics bash it, the movies may sometimes have bad dialogue or bad acting, but the idea is always novel. The last Airbender was an okay kid fantasy movie, I mean given the context there are ALOT of bad kids fantasy movies and this was not that bad as critics say and fans are just mad because he didnt follow the storyline and some aspects of the cartoon. I for one do not care about the cartoon, so I enjoyed to movie for what it is.

    For all the talk of darkness in kids fantasy movies, they arent very dark at all, but this seems to be the first genuinely dark kid fantasy movie in a very very long time.

  • Dr. Buttocks

    f m. night dawg.