Remember when every single person in the theater laughed at M. Night Shyamalan‘s name during the Devil trailer? And then a few months before that the director made one of the worst blockbuster films in history?
It takes a hero to go beyond the depths of hell to redeem a man that low. That hero is Will Smith and he is bringing along his family for this intervention. Their production company Overbrook is developing M. Night Shyamalan’s next directorial effort, a sci-film titled One Thousand A.E. [THR]
Details are sparse, but this will be a different project then what we announced in June, with Bruce Willis, Bradley Cooper and Gwyneth Paltrow attached. Considering the critical acclaim of The Last Airbender, the project was never picked up and put on the shelf.
This new “ultra clandestine” project has Jaden Smith attached and is written by The Book of Eli scribe Gary Whitta, who is also behind the Kurt Russell noir Undying, directed by Jon Amiel. There is also a major starring role for an “adult male,” but don’t get your hopes of for Will Smith. Only his son is looking to star.
While The Last Airbender was the absolute worst film I’ve seen in the last few years, the decent Devil proved Shyamalan still has a mind for crafting stories. While Whitta will be behind this script, I hope he can provide a story to rejuvenate the fallen director. I want to say it would be an impossible feat to make a film more lacking than his last, but I don’t want to challenge him.
Did you like The Book of Eli? Can this project bring back Shyamalan?