With After Earth coming to theatres this weekend, director M. Night Shyamalan is back on the radar, selling his particular brand of twisty-turny movies that made a splash with The Sixth Sense and have had diminishing returns ever since. One film that did not diminish, however, was Unbreakable. And Shyamalan says that he would very much like to make Unbreakable 2.
In an interview with Collider, Shyamalan discussed the possibility of Unbreakable 2. He’s pretty much hinted at it since the film was released ten years ago, but thus far nothing has come of it. He finally talked about it, in a rather roundabout way. Here’s the full quote:
That’s an agenda versus “I want to talk about loneliness.” And then it comes out, “How is the best way to talk about loneliness?” Intention versus agenda. And then I go, “Oh my God, if I make a movie about loneliness and everybody hated it, will it be able to come out and people will get it?” That’s when you start going, “Oh my God,” and you try to push that away. The same thing with “Unbreakable,” to some extent, it’s excitement to be made. “It’s such a fun thing” is squashing my ability to find the thing that’s connecting me with it. Does that make sense? So, I don’t feel like I did it for agenda reasons. So, slowly I’m getting a story in my head that I feel like is able to tell what I’m feeling right now.
Right. The key sentence in all that is the final one, that Shyamalan is getting together an idea for Unbreakable 2. The rest sounds rather like quintessential Shyamalan – defending against an attack on his artistic integrity when no one questioned it in the first place.
Unbreakable was a gritty superhero flick long before there were gritty superhero flicks. It remains one of Shyamalan’s best films, with Bruce Willis as the man who never wanted to a be a hero. Sound like any other guys we know?
In far less exciting Shyamalan news, the director is also interested in doing a sequel to The Last Airbender. Given that the original received a critical drubbing and managed to offend just about everybody, I hope that this is just a pipe dream. The Last Airbender apparently made money, though, so there’s a chance we’ll be subjected to a sequel if Shyamalan can get funding.
My patience with Shyamalan ran out way back with The Village. Unbreakable 2 seems like a good idea, given that the original was such an excellent and interesting film, but honestly I don’t think the guy has an original idea left. The reason we all expect a twist ending is because that’s all he ever gives us.
So: Unbreakable 2? Good idea? Or is Shyamalan just whistling in the wind about it?