Hey folks, do you know something- M.Night Shyamalan has been dragged into a racism accusations and casting controversy regarding his upcoming movie “ The Last Airbender”. Read the rest of this entry »
The Last Airbender is shaping up to be a film of epic proportions and is without doubt director M. Night Shyamalan’s most ambitious feature film undertaking yet.
The story follows the adventures of Aang (Noah Ringer), a ten year old ‘Airbender’ who has the ability to control wind. Aang is also the successor to a long line of Avatars – physical incarnations of the world itself who are capable of manipulating all four elements. Aang must put his childhood ways aside and battle to stop the Firebenders from enslaving the Water, Earth and Air nations. As he does, he is pursued by the banished evil Prince of the Fire Nation, Zuko (Dev Patel), who plans to regain his lost honor by capturing the last Airbender.
The story is expected to unfold as a trilogy and is already being touted as Paramount’s answer to epic franchises like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. Sounds like a way out call but then the animated series it is based upon (Avatar: The Last Airbender) is supremely popular and the first teaser trailer certainly has “epic” stamped all over it.
Recently Tara Bennett over at VFXWorld spoke with producer Frank Marshall, production designer Philip Messina and director M. Night Shyamalan who each talked about the ambitious scope of the film.
“We are creating a completely fantastical, make-believe world,” Marshall said. “A couple of firsts on this film for Night: One is shooting all this greenscreen. He’s never really done much of that before…at all. He’s expanding his talent and range and that’s what I find exciting about it. He’s taking his filmmaking style and applying it to this fantasy world, which he hasn’t done before. And for me it’s been really exciting because I haven’t worked on a movie, that I can remember, that has a totally made up world. We get into a little bit of fantasy in Jurassic Park and Back to the Future, but they are still in the real world. But this is like our Star Wars. We get to have wild imaginative ideas. There are no limits. So the biggest challenge has really been creating this world and how we do it.”
Thanks to Slashfilm I’ve become aware that the official website for M. Night Shyamalan has been launched -and I highly recommend taking a look at it.
The site is extremely interactive, so much so that it feels more like playing an adventure game than it does navigating a website. There are also puzzles that you must complete in order to see some of its goodies (heres a tip: sometimes hold your left mouse button down to interact and move objects instead of just clicking).
Night is currently filming The Last Airbender and whilst I’m heavily looking forward to that movie his official website has rekindled my desire to see Unbreakable again. Unbreakable is, to my mind, one of the best super-hero movies to have ever graced the big screen. These days super-hero movies are all the rage but when you ask most people which are the best super-hero movies rarely will M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable come up in the conversation. Yet from the moment I entered the kitchen from Unbreakable (as depicted on his new website) and the score to the movie began playing I couldn’t stop thinking what a shame it was that Unbreakable was a movie that the masses didn’t swallow up.
Haven’t seen Unbreakable or can’t really remember it? Once you discover and watch Night’s favorite scene from the movie on his website maybe it will remind you of what an underrated but brilliant movie Unbreakable is.
You’ll also find a hidden note by the director who states that the theme of Unbreakable was ‘Feeling sadness in the morning because you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing.’ There’s the real key to the unhappiness in this world right there, and why Unbreakable has such a touching and relevant message at its core. It’s also a key theme behind why Night needs to make the sequel…
In any case, there’s more than just information about Unbreakable to explore on his official site, so enough commentary from me.
Visit M. Night Shyamalan’s Official Website
And just in case you’re yet to see it or want to see it again, Unbreakable is available on Blu-ray (click the image):
Noah Ringer as Aang in 'The Last Airbender'
Paramount Pictures have released the first teaser trailer for M. Night Shyamalan’s fantasy adventure The Last Airbender. Check it out:
The story follows the adventures of Aang (Noah Ringer), a ten year old ‘Airbender’ who has the ability to control wind. Aang is also the successor to a long line of Avatars – physical incarnations of the world itself who are capable of manipulating all four elements. Aang must put his childhood ways aside and battle to stop the Firebenders from enslaving the Water, Earth and Air nations. As he does, he is pursued by the banished evil Prince of the Fire Nation, Zuko (Dev Patel), who plans to regain his lost honor by capturing the last Airbender.
Dev Patel as the Evil Prince of the Fire Nation 'Zuko'
The Last Airbender is directed by M. Night Shyamalan (Unbreakable / Signs/ The Happening) who is planning on making this the first of a trilogy. Music is composed by James Newton-Howard. Additional cast include Cliff Curtis (Push / 10,000BC), Jackson Rathbone (The Twilight Saga) and Seychelle Gabriel (The Spirit).
The Last Airbender will be released in theaters:
USA – July 2, 2010
Australia – September 9, 2010
