M.

Night Shyamalan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

M. Night Shyamalan

M. Night Shyamalan at a press conference announcing The Happening in

2008

Born Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan

August 6, 1970 (age 40)

Puduchery, India[1]

Occupation Film director, producer,screenwriter and actor

Religion Hindu, Thiyya

Spouse Bhavna Vaswani (1993-Present)

Website

http://www.mnightshyamalan.com

Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan (pronounced /ˈʃæməlɑːn/;[2] Malayalam: മനോജ് നെല്ലിയാട്ട്

ശ്യാമളന്‍ Maṉōj Nelliyāṯṯu Ṣiyāmaḷaṉ, born 6 August 1970), known professionally as M. Night Shyamalan, is

an Indian-born American filmmaker and screenwriter, known for making movies with contemporary

supernatural plots that climax with a twist ending. He is also known for filming his movies (and staging his plots)
in and around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he was raised. Shyamalan released his first film, Praying with
Anger, in 1992 while he was a New York Universitystudent. His second movie, the major feature film Wide
Awake, made in 1996 but not released until three years later, failed to find financial success.
Shyamalan gained international recognition when he wrote and directed 1999's The Sixth Sense, which was a
commercial success and nominated for six Academy Awards, including: Best Picture,Best Director and Best
Original Screenplay. He followed The Sixth Sense by writing and directing Unbreakable, released in 2000,
which received positive reviews. His 2002 film Signs, where he also played Ray Reddy, gained both critical and
financial success. His next movie The Village (2004) was a critical failure whose box office plummeted after a
strong opening weekend, and Lady in the Water (2006) performed even worse. The film The Happening (2008)
did financially better than his previous effort but was also panned by critics. His film, The Last Airbender (2010)
has also received extremely negative reviews. His latest film, Devil (2010), which he produced and wrote the
story for, but did not direct, was released on September 17, 2010 and has received mixed reviews.

Contents
 [hide]

1 Early life

2 Career

3 Personal life

4 Filmography

o 4.1 Praying

with Anger

o 4.2 Wide

Awake

o 4.3 The Sixth

Sense

o 4.4 Unbreaka

ble

o 4.5 Signs

o 4.6 The

Village

o 4.7 Lady in

the Water

o 4.8 The

Happening

o 4.9 The Last

Airbender

o 4.10 Devil
 o 4.11 One

Thousand A.E.

o 4.12 The

Connected

o 4.13 Other

projects

5 Television

o 5.1 Sci-Fi

Channel

6 Criticism and

controversy

o 6.1 Shyamala

n Twists

o 6.2 Plagiarism

7 References

8 External links

[ edit]Early life

M. Night Shyamalan and Bryce Dallas Howard at the Spanish premiere of The Village (in the San Sebastián International
Film Festival, 2006).

Shyamalan was born in Puducherry, India.[1][3] His father, Nelliyattu C. Shyamalan, is an

Indian Malayali physician belonging to a famous "Thiyya" tharavad from Mahe, Kerala. His mother,
Jayalakshmi, is a Tamil Indian and an obstetrician and gynecologist by profession.[4] In the 1960s, after medical
school (at the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research inPuducherry) and the birth
of their first child, Veena, his parents moved to the United States. His mother returned to India to spend the last
five months of her pregnancy with him at her parents’ home in Chennai (Madras).

Shyamalan spent his first six weeks in Puducherry, and then was raised in Penn Valley, Pennsylvania, an
affluent suburb of Philadelphia. He attended the private Roman Catholic grammar schoolWaldron Mercy
Academy, though he was a Hindu (they chose it for disciplinary reasons), followed by the Episcopal Academy,
a private Episcopal high school located at the time in Merion, Pennsylvania. Shyamalan earned the New York
University Merit Scholarship in 1988.[5] Shyamalan went on to New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts,
in Manhattan, graduating in 1992.[citation needed] It was while studying there that he adopted Night as his second
name.[6]

Shyamalan had an early desire to be a filmmaker when he was given a Super-8 camera at a young age.
Though his father wanted him to follow in the family practice of medicine, his mother encouraged him to follow
his passion.[7] By the time he was 17 the Steven Spielberg fan had made 45 home movies. Beginning with The
Sixth Sense, he has included a scene from one of these childhood films on each DVD release of his films,
which he feels represents his first attempt at the same kind of film (with the exception of Lady in the Water).

[ edit]Career
Shyamalan made his first film, the semi-autobiographical drama Praying with Anger, while still an NYU student,
using money borrowed from family and friends.[8] It was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on
September 12, 1992,[9] and played commercially at one theater for one week.[9] 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, 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.
[10]
 His parents were the film's associate producers. The drama dealt with a ten-year-old Catholic schoolboy
(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 Julia Stiles, and Camryn
Manheim. Wide Awake was filmed in a school Shyamalan attended as a child[11] and earned 1999 Young Artist
Award nominations for Best Drama, and, for Cross, Best Performance.[12] Only in limited release, the film
grossed $305,704 in theaters.[13]

That same year Shyamalan co-wrote the screenplay for Stuart Little with Greg Brooker. In 2010, he
directed The Last Airbender, based on the Nickelodeon TV show Avatar: The Last Airbender.

In 2008, Shyamalan was awarded the Padma Shri by the government of India.[14]

[ edit]Personal life
In 1993, Shyamalan married psychologist Bhavna Vaswani, a fellow student whom he met at NYU [15] and with
whom he has two daughters. The family resides on a sprawling estate in Willistown, Pennsylvania, near
Shyamalan's usual shooting site of Philadelphia. His production company, Blinding Edge Pictures is located
in Berwyn, PA.[16]

[ edit]Filmography
[edit]Praying with Anger
Main article:  Praying with Anger

M. Night Shyamalan and Mark Wahlberg(right) at the presentation of the film The Happening in Madrid.

Praying with Anger was Shyamalan's first work as a young director and was released in 1992. The movie tells
the story of a young man named Dev Raman (played by Shyamalan) who returns to India to explore his
heritage. During the course of the movie, Dev learns that his cold and distant father, now deceased, actually
cared for him a great deal before his passing. The title of the movie comes from a moment in the film when the
protagonist learns that it is possible to pray to Hindu deities with almost any emotion except indifference. Upon
realizing this, Raman finds he is only able to pray with anger. [17][18]

[edit]Wide Awake
Main article:  Wide Awake (1998 film)

Wide Awake, Shyamalan's first major feature film, came from a screenplay written by Shyamalan that was
purchased by the then up-and-coming independent film studio Miramax. A provision was added to the sale that
Shyamalan could direct the film and shoot it in Philadelphia. It was produced by Cary Woods and Cathy
Konrad. The film starred Joseph Cross, Rosie O'Donnell, Dana Delaney, Denis Leary, and Robert
Loggia. Wide Awake also featured Julia Stiles in one of her earliest roles as Josh's teenage sister, Nina. The
film follows a young boy's search for God after his grandfather dies, a story told quietly, driven by dialogue.

The film is similar to later Shyamalan films with a theme of crises of belief, a supernatural sub-plot, and a twist
ending that sums up the ideas presented in the film. [19] Although Wide Awake was made in 1995, it was not
released until 1998 where it grossed a total of only $1,288,000 against a production budget of $6 million.

[edit]The Sixth Sense

Main article:  The Sixth Sense

Shyamalan achieved commercial success in 1999 when he wrote and directed The Sixth Sense,
a supernatural drama about a psychologist (Bruce Willis) who blames himself for a patient's suicide and his
own broken marriage. Upon meeting a disturbed child (Haley Joel Osment) who claims to see people who have
died, the psychologist feels he has a chance to redeem himself. According to the book DisneyWar, David Vogel
of The Walt Disney Company read Shyamalan's script and, without obtaining approval from his superiors,
bought the rights to it for a high $2 million and allowed Shyamalan to direct. [20] Vogel's bosses, disagreeing with
his decision, sold the production rights to Spyglass Entertainment and kept only a 12.5 percent distribution fee
for itself.[20]

The film had a $40-million budget, and grossed over $600 million at the box office worldwide.

The Sixth Sense was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original
Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Supporting Actor for Osment and Best Supporting Actress for Toni Collette.
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America awarded it a Nebula Award for Best Script of 1999.

[edit]Unbreakable

Main article:  Unbreakable (film)

Unbreakable is a superhero drama about David Dunn (Bruce Willis), the sole survivor of a train crash, and his
encounters with comic book collector Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), who is convinced that Dunn has
latent superpowers. The movie opened to mixed reviews with many comparing it unfavorably to The Sixth
Sense and noting its slow pace and somber atmosphere.[21] With a budget of $73.2 million, the movie grossed
over $95 million domestically.[22] It went on to collect another $154 million worldwide. [23]

In interviews with Shyamalan, Unbreakable has been characterized as his "personal favorite", among the films
he has made.[24]

[edit]Signs

Main article:  Signs (film)

Opening in August 2002, Signs is a science fiction drama of a rural Pennsylvania Episcopal priest (Mel Gibson)
who has lost his faith after his wife's death and regains it with his family as they witness the worldwide events
of an alien invasion.Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin, and Abigail Breslin also star. Budgeted at $72
million, Signs grossed $227 million domestically and $408 million worldwide.[25] It was the highest-grossing film
as well as the highest opening-weekend gross ($60 million) of Gibson's career as an actor.

The film received a generally positive reception. Most notably of which was Roger Ebert's four-star review,
stating, "M. Night Shyamalan's Signs is the work of a born filmmaker, able to summon apprehension out of thin
air. When it is over, we think not how little has been decided, but how much has been experienced". [26]

Shyamalan said in an interview with Science Fiction Weekly that his choice of Gibson was influenced in part by
the actor's emotional role in the film Lethal Weapon: "I was on my parents' sofa watching the video of Lethal
Weapon, and then this guy did stuff emotionally that had no business being in an action movie. ... I completely
believed the humanity of a man who was so torn by the loss of his wife that he wasn't afraid of dying, which
made him a lethal weapon. ... [W]hen I wrote the movie about a guy who loses faith because his wife has
passed away, I felt like that was the guy. And I also like taking an action guy and not letting him be The Guy."

Shyamalan also said that originally, there was going to be very little music in the film, but that composer James
Newton Howard's intense and emotional compositions reminded him of a Bernard Herrmann (Alfred
Hitchcock's frequent composer) score (Psycho) and prompted him to change his mind.[27]

[edit]The Village
Main article:  The Village (2004 film)

Drawing on Wuthering Heights after being asked to pen a screen adaptation, Shyamalan went to work on what
was originally titled The Woods.[28] The Village was released in July 2004. A drama starring Joaquin
Phoenix, William Hurt,Sigourney Weaver, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Adrien Brody, it tells of a small, 19th-
century community run by a group of "Elders" who seem to be content in their isolation from the outside world.
The village is encircled by a forest said to be filled with mysterious and threatening creatures. Even as an
uneasy truce between the villagers and the creatures seems to be falling apart, one villager (Phoenix) starts to
question their forced isolation.

With total production costs of $71.6 million,[29] the film grossed $114.2 million domestically ($50 million in its
opening weekend) and a further $142 million in non-USA receipts. Its successful opening weekend in America
was followed by a severe dropoff of 67%, and the film is generally considered to be a commercial
disappointment. Critical response was mostly negative:[30] Desson Thomson of The Washington Post called it "a
bewildering disappointment";[30] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times said, "It's tedious instead of
provocative and so unconvincing as to be preposterous." [30] Roger Ebert, who had previously praised
Shyamalan, called the film "a colossal miscalculation, a movie based on a premise that cannot support it, a
premise so transparent it would be laughable were the movie not so deadly solemn. . . . He is a director of
considerable skill who evokes stories out of moods, but this time, alas, he took the day off". [31]
Shyamalan expressed a great deal of regret in the way the film was marketed, telling producing partner Sam
Mercer, while overseeing the editing of the teaser trailer for Lady in the Water, that he had wished for The
Village to have been sold as a period romance with a scare only at the end of the trailer. Shyamalan is also
said to have thought that the shift in the main theme of faith from his previous films to that of deception resulted
in the mixed-negative response. Citing that his other movies set out to make an audience believe in the
supernatural, The Village set out to do the opposite.[32]

The Village earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score.

[edit]Lady in the Water

Main article:  Lady in the Water

Lady in the Water, released on July 21, 2006, is a fantasy about Philadelphia maintenance man Cleveland
Heep (Paul Giamatti), who discovers a young woman named Story (Bryce Dallas Howard) in the swimming
pool of his apartment complex. Gradually, he and his neighbors 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 was underscored by a rift between Shyamalan and Disney, the studio for which he
had made 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 Michael Bamberger, Shyamalan said that he felt Disney "no longer
valued individualism...no longer valued fighters." [33] Shyamalan left the studio after production president Nina
Jacobson and others became highly critical of his script, which Warner Bros. eventually produced.[34][dead
link]
 Critical response was again negative — Frank Lovece of Film Journal International saying simply,
"this Lady is the Showgirls of fantasy film"[35] — disparaging both the inclusion of a film-critic character (one of
many elements 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."

At the 27th Golden Raspberry Awards (for 2006 films) Lady in the Water received four Golden Raspberry
Award nominations, Worst Supporting Actor (Shyamalan), Worst Director (Shyamalan), Worst Screenplay
(Shyamalan), and Worst Picture. The film won Worst Director and Worst Supporting Actor.

As of September 14, 2006, the film made $42.3 million domestically and $30.5 million in the foreign box office,
totaling $72.8 million. The film's $75 million[36] production cost and $70 million[37] marketing campaign combined
with the fractional percentages returned by movie vendors meant the film lost close to $100 million USD during
its theatrical run. DVD rentals of the film have earned $19.96 million as of February 18, 2007.

[edit]The Happening
Main article:  The Happening (2008 film)

M. Night Shyamalan and Mark Wahlberg for The Happening in 2008.

On January 29, 2007, Variety reported that Shyamalan showed a new script titled The Green Effect to studio
executives but no major studios were interested in greenlighting the film. [38] A little over a month later, the same
magazine reported that Shyamalan's spec script (now titled The Happening) had been sold to 20th Century Fox
after an extensive rewrite.

The plot involves a mysterious toxin that causes people to commit suicide. The protagonist, a science teacher
named Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg), attempts to escape from the substance with his wife and friends as
hysteria grips the East Coast of the United States. [39]

Despite the hype of being Shyamalan's first R-Rated film, it failed to impress most notable critics. The film is
produced by Shyamalan, Sam Mercer, and Barry Mendel, and was released in the U.S. on Friday the 13th of
June, 2008.

On its opening day, The Happening grossed $13 million. Over the weekend, the total gross came in at
$30,517,109 in 2,986 theaters in the United States and Canada, averaging to about $10,220 per venue, and
ranking #3 at the box office.[40] The foreign box office gross for opening weekend was an estimated $32.1
million.[41] The total gross of the film as of September 17, 2008 stands at $163.3 million. In addition to box
office, the film earned $26 million in DVD rentals between October 7, 2008 and November 2008.

[edit]The Last Airbender

Main article:  The Last Airbender

On January 8, 2007, it was announced that Shyamalan would write, direct and produce the live-action
adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, a popular animated TV series on the cable channel Nickelodeon, a
series influenced by Asian art, mythology and various martial-arts fighting styles. The movie was produced for
Paramount Pictures' MTV Films and Nick Movies. The trade paper Variety later reported Shyamalan would
film Avatar after The Happening.[42]

According to an interview with the co-creators in SFX Magazine, Shyamalan came across Avatar when his
daughter wanted to be Katara for Halloween. Intrigued, Shyamalan researched and watched the series with his
family. "WatchingAvatar has become a family event in my house ... so we are looking forward to how the story
develops in season three," said Shyamalan. "Once I saw the amazing world that Mike and Bryan created, I
knew it would make a great feature film." [43] According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Shyamalan began
filming Avatar: The Last Airbender in May 2009; he needed four or five huge soundstages in the Philadelphia
area to produce the film.[44] On April 15, 2008, Paramount and Nickelodeon announced the official title for the
film will be The Last Airbender.[45] Also announced was the release date: July 2, 2010.

This film only revolves around the first season of the animated TV show but Shyamalan has stated he plans to
do the other two movies as well (revolving around the 2nd and 3rd seasons). [citation needed]

The film has received largely negative reviews. Based on 158 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, the film
has an overall approval rating from critics of 6%. [46] Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of
100 to reviews from film critics, gave the film an average score of 20 based on 32 reviews. [47]

[edit]Devil

Main article:  Devil (film)

Shyamalan wrote the story for Devil, a 2010 film directed by Drew Dowdle and John Eric Dowdle. The
screenplay was written by Brian Nelson and the story focuses on five people trapped in an elevator, one of
whom is the devil.[48]

[edit]One Thousand A.E.

This is Shyamalan's current in-development project, which he is directing but not writing. [49]

[edit]The Connected
Another in-development project, which Shyamalan is writing and directing. Bruce Willis appears to have been
offered a role for the movie and has expressed an interest in this role, saying that he was enthusiastic about
the project. He further stated that it is "a typical Shyamalan mystery thriller again." [50]

[edit]Other projects
In July 2000, on The Howard Stern Show, Shyamalan said he had met with Spielberg and was in early talks to
write the script for the fourth Indiana Jones film. This would have given Shyamalan a chance to work with his
longtime idol, Steven Spielberg.[51] After the project fell through, Shyamalan later said it was too "tricky" to
arrange and "not the right thing" for him to do. [52]

Shyamalan's name was linked with the 2001 film Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, but the project
conflicted with the production of Unbreakable. In July 2006, while doing press tours for Lady in the Water,
Shyamalan had said he was still interested in directing one of the last two Harry Potter films. "The themes that
run through it...the empowering of children, a positive outlook...you name it, it falls in line with my beliefs",
Shyamalan 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".[53][54]
After the release of The Village in 2004, Shyamalan had been planning a film adaptation of Yann Martel's
novel Life of Pi with 20th Century Fox, but later backed out so that he could make Lady in the Water. "I love
that book. I mean, it's basically [the story of] a kid born in the same city as me [Pondicherry, India] — it almost
felt predestined", Shyamalan said. "But I was hesitant because the book has kind of a twist ending. And I was
concerned that as soon as you put my name on it, everybody would have a different experience. Whereas if
someone else did it, it would be much more satisfying, I think. Expectations, you've got to be aware of them. I'm
wishing them all great luck. I hope they make a beautiful movie". [55]

In July 2008, it was announced that Shyamalan had partnered with Media Rights Capital to form a production
company called Night Chronicles. Shyamalan would produce, but not direct, one film a year for three years.
[56]
 The first of the three films was Devil, a supernatural thriller directed by siblings John and Drew Dowdle. The
script was written by Brian Nelson, based on an original idea from Shyamalan.[57] The movie was about a group
of people stuck in an elevator with the devil, and starred Chris Messina.[58]

[ edit]Television
[edit]Sci-Fi Channel
In 2004, Shyamalan was involved in a media hoax with Sci-Fi Channel, which was eventually uncovered by the
press. Sci-Fi claimed in its "documentary" special — The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan, shot on the set
of The Village — that Shyamalan was legally dead for nearly a half-hour while drowned in a frozen pond in a
childhood accident, and that upon being rescued he had experiences of communicating with spirits, fueling an
obsession with the supernatural. The Sci-Fi Channel also claimed that Shyamalan had grown "sour" when the
"documentary" filmmakers' questions got too personal, and had therefore withdrawn from participating and
threatened to sue the filmmakers.

In truth, Shyamalan developed the hoax with Sci-Fi, going so far as having Sci-Fi staffers sign non disclosure
agreements with a $5-million fine attached and requiring Shyamalan's office to formally approve each step.
Neither the childhood accident nor the supposed rift with the filmmakers ever occurred. The hoax included a
non-existent Sci-Fi publicist, "David Westover", whose name appeared on press releases regarding the special.
Sci-Fi also fed false news stories to theAssociated Press[59] and Zap2It.com,[60] among others. A New York
Post news item, based on a Sci Fi press release, referred to Shyamalan's attorneys threatening to sue the
filmmakers; the attorneys named were non-existent.

After an AP reporter confronted Sci-Fi Channel president Bonnie Hammer at a press conference, Hammer
admitted the hoax, saying it was part of a guerrilla marketing campaign to generate pre-
release publicity for The Village. This prompted Sci-Fi's parent company, NBC Universal, to state that the
undertaking was "not consistent with our policy at NBC. We would never intend to offend the public or the press
and we value our relationship with both."[61] Other critics have since deemed viewers to be victim of a somewhat
'cheap' promotional trick that went too far.[62]

[ edit]Criticism and controversy

[edit]Shyamalan Twists

With the exception of The Sixth Sense, a common criticism of Shyamalan's works is that they feature better
direction than screenwriting.[63][64] He has also been labeled a "one-trick pony" for his continuous use of the
"twist" element in his screenplays.[63] After the release of The Village, Slate's Michael Agger noted that
Shyamalan was following "an uncomfortable pattern" of "making fragile, sealed-off movies that fell apart when
exposed to outside logic."[65]

In a May 31, 2008, interview with the London Independent, Shyamalan offered this answer to the question
about his "one-trick" movies: "Q: A common misperception of me is ... A: That all my movies have twist
endings, or that they're all scary. All my movies are spiritual and all have an emotional perspective." [66]

[edit]Plagiarism

Shyamalan has been accused of plagiarism. Robert McIlhinney, a Pennsylvania screenwriter, sued Shyamalan
over the similarity of Signs to his unpublished script Lord of the Barrens: The Jersey Devil.[67][68] Margaret
Peterson Haddix noted that The Village has numerous elements found in her children's novel Running Out of
Time,[69] and publisher Simon & Schuster had talked about filing a lawsuit; [68] it was never filed.

[ edit]References
1. ^ a b "The need for a Dev Patel in the Life of Pi". Rediff. 2009-02-20.
2. ^ [1]
3. ^ Bamberger, Michael. The Man Who Heard Voices: Or, How M. Night Shyamalan Risked His Career on a
Fairy Tale(Gotham Books, New York, 2006), p. 150.

4. ^ Chennai Online.
5. ^ http://nymag.com/movies/reviews/17661/
6. ^ Edelstein, David (16 July 2006). "M. Narcissus Shyamalan". New York Magazine. Retrieved 27 April 2010.
7. ^ NNDB -Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan.
8. ^ Bamberger, Ibid., p. 19.
9. ^ a b IMDb: Praying with Anger Release Information.
10. ^ Internet Movie Database - Wide Awake Trivia.
11. ^ Answers.com - Wide Awake.
12. ^ Young Artists Award - Past Nominations Listing.
13. ^ The Numbers - Wide Awake Box Office Data.
14. ^ Padma Shri Awardees — Padma Awards.
15. ^ The Christian Science Monitor (July 28, 2004): "A Different Take: "Self-directed filmmaker M. Night
Shyamalan forges his own sub-genre: suspenseful movies with revealing twists. How a confident Hollywood

outsider keeps his focus on family and faith", by Stephen Humphries.

16. ^ http://herndon1.sdrdc.com/cgi-bin/fecimg/?28931990080
17. ^ Stephen Holden (1992). "Praying with Anger (1992)". New York Times. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
18. ^ James Berardinelli (1993). "Review: Praying With Anger". Reelviews.net.
19. ^ Danel Griffin. "Review: Wide Awake". uashome.alaska.edu.
20. ^ a b Answers.com - The Sixth Sense.
21. ^ RottenTomatoes.com: Unbreakable (2000).
22. ^ thesmokinggun.com -  Hollywood By The Numbers  - February 28, 2006 "Shyamalan's
followup,  "Unbreakable," carried a $73.2 million budget, its U.S. gross ended up just shy of $100 million.

However, overseas receipts and video/DVD sales surely landed the film in the black."

23. ^ IMDb.com: Unbreakable (2000): Box-office.

24. ^ http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2006-07-18-shyamalan_x.htm USA Today. "Much riding on
Shyamalan's 'Lady' luck" (July 20, 2006).

25. ^ Box Office Mojo - Signs Box Office Information.

26. ^ RogerEbert.com: Signs review.
27. ^ Science Fiction Weekly (August 5, 2002): M. Night Shyamalan interview.
28. ^ Ain't It Cool News - "Moriarty Rumbles! M. Night's In The WOODS, SECOND HAND LIONS, And LOST IN
TRANSLATION!" - "THE WOODS (Screenplay Review)", September 22, 2003.

29. ^ The Smoking Gun Hollywood by the Numbers.

30. ^ a b c Rotten Tomatoes - The Village.
31. ^ "The Village". Chicago Sun-Times.
32. ^ The Man Who Heard Voices: Or, How M. Night Shyamalan Risked His Career on a Fairy Tale.
33. ^ The Internet Movie Database "StudioBriefing" (June 23, 2006): "Shyamalan Blasts Disney Execs in New
Book".

34. ^ Los Angeles Times (June 23, 2006): "Book Tells of Breakup with Disney".
35. ^ The DVD, HD-DVD, and Blu-ray of this film will be released on December 19. Film Journal
International  review:  Lady in the Water.

36. ^ FOXNEWS.COM Kevin Costner Almost Got 'Lady' Lead, Wednesday, July 19, 2006.
37. ^ Director's Tell-all Assault on Disney Shocks Hollywood
38. ^ variety.com, January 28, 2007, Michael Fleming - Shyamalan re-working 'Green'.
39. ^ Kirk Honeycutt, "Film Review: The Happening", The Hollywood Reporter, June 10, 2008, Accessed June
13, 2008.

40. ^ "The Happening (2008) - Weekend Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-06-16.
41. ^ "'Happening' hammers 'Hulk overseas". Comics2Film. Retrieved 2008-06-16.
42. ^ Daily Variety January 8, 2007: "Shyamalan's Avatar also to bigscreen" by Pamela McClintock.
43. ^ "Nickelodeon's Avatar Returns to Restore Peace to The Four Corners of the World and Prepares to Face
Off With the Fire Nation Once and for All".

44. ^ "M. Night Shyamalan Scouting Locations in Philly for Avatar Movie".
45. ^ Pamela McClintock, Tatina Siegel (2008-04-15). "Nickelodeon, Par team for 'Airbender'". Variety.
Retrieved 2008-04-15.

46. ^ "The Last Airbender (2010)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved September 28, 2010.
47. ^ "The Last Airbender reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved September 28, 2010.
48. ^ http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/film/3126975/Shafted.html
49. ^ [2]
50. ^ [3]
51. ^ Premiere.com - "Indiana Jones and the Curse of Development Hell", By Ann Donahue.
52. ^ Science Fiction Weekly, Ibid.
53. ^ Tour Vlog #7: Kung Fu Snape (Tucson, AZ), posted October 4, 2007.
54. ^ IGN.com, July 14, 2006 - "Potter in the Water? Shyamalan interested in magical franchise" by Jeff Otto.
55. ^ Entertainment Weekly(May 3, 2006): "'Water' Bearer" by Missy Schwartz.
56. ^ Fleming, Michael (July 21, 2008). "Night falls for Media Rights". Variety.
57. ^ Fleming, Michael (October 28, 2008). "MRC, Shyamalan dance with 'Devil'". Variety. Retrieved 2009-01-
03.

58. ^ "Details on Shyamalan Story 'Devil'". Retrieved 2009-10-19.

59. ^ Associated Press (June 16, 2004): "Profile of M. Night Shyamalan goes sour: Sci-Fi Channel is still
planning to air the documentary".

60. ^ Zap2It.com (June 17, 2004): 1|,00.html "Sci-Fi Schedules Controversial Shyamalan Doc".
61. ^ Associated Press story on CBS News site (July 20, 2004): " Sci-Fi Channel Admits Hoax, 'Documentary'
On Reclusive Filmmaker Is Bogus.

62. ^ MoviesOnline.CA.
63. ^ a b Glenn Whip, WATER' TORTURE IS M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN A GENIUS OR AN EGOMANIAC?
DIRECTOR'S NEWEST FILM HAS HOLLYWOOD WONDERING, dailybulletin.com (07/20/2006)

64. ^ The Radford Reviews (August 2, 2004)

65. ^ slate.com (July 30, 2004): "The case against M. Night Shyamalan".
 66. ^ "The 5-minute Interview: M Night Shyamalan, Writer and director". The Independent (London). May 31,
2008. Retrieved May 12, 2010.

67. ^ Movie & TV News @ IMDb.com - WENN - 11 August 2004.

68. ^ a b eonline.com "Shyamalan's "Village" Villainy?" Tue., Aug. 10, 2004 12:25 PM PDT by Josh Grossberg.
69. ^ "Is Shyamalan a copycat?" rediff Entertainment Bureau | August 11, 2004 10:36 IST.
[ edit]External links
Wikimedia Commons has
media related to: Night
Shyamalan

 M. Night Shyamalan at the Internet Movie Database

 M. Night Shyamalan: The Official Site

 M. Night Shyamalan Online

 2006 M. Night Shyamalan interview (Interview with Jon Niccum)

 Interview with Rajeev Masand on CNN-IBN/ibnlive.com

 M. Night Shyamalan Interview at www.sci-fi-online.com

 2010 M. Night Shyamalan Time Magazine Interview

[hide]
v • d • e
Films directed by M. Nig
1990
Praying with Anger (1992) · Wide Awake (1998) · The Sixth Sense (1999)
s
2000
Unbreakable (2000) · Signs (2002) · The Village (2004) · Lady in the Water (2006) · The Happening (2008)
s
2010
The Last Airbender (2010)
s

Categories: 1970 births | Living people | Actors from Pennsylvania | American film actors | American film

directors | American Hindus | American people of Indian descent | American people of Tamil
descent | American actors of Asian descent | American film directors of Asian descent | English-language film
directors | Indian immigrants to the United States | Malayalam film directors | Malayali people | Naturalized
citizens of the United States | New York University alumni| Recipients of the Padma Shri | People from
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | People from Puducherry