SDCC Notebook: The M. Night Aftermath
By Arturo R. García
One of the “highlights” I missed during San Diego Comic-Con last week was the reception M. Night Shyamalan got during a showing of the trailerfor his next film:
The trailer was playing, the audience was into it, until … the screen read “From M. Night Shyamalan.” A huge collective GROAN exhaled from the crowd. Even worse, when the trailer finished, “boos” were thrown at the screen.”
It turns out the mockery for Shyamalan and Devil, on which he served as a producer, wasn’t confined to the West Coast, according to The New York Post: Shyamalan was booed, and “everyone erupted in laughter,” according to someone in the audience.
Of course, M. Night got himself into this position thanks to his film adaptation of the Avatar: The Last Airbender series, which we’ve covered, both with our own stories and by sharing stories from Racebending. I got the chance to talk to Racebending’s Michael Le about his group’s protest of the Airbender film, where the site goes from here, and whether the film’s epic critical flop has rendered the series unsalvageable.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Chris wrote:
It should be said that Air Bender was just the latest, if worst, of M. Night’s filmic offenses.
Posted 29 Jul 2010 at 8:39 am ¶
Karine wrote:
I agree that Avatar isn’t the only reason he got booed. After Unbreakable I think his star seriously dimmed. And even if they were booing because of Avatar, more then likely the casting fail didn’t bother the average Comic-Con visitor as much as how it messed with the original series and, from what I hear, it generally sucked.
Posted 29 Jul 2010 at 10:41 am ¶
7thangel wrote:
i heard about the laughter and boos. that movie will suffer just because m. knight is the producer. i’m trying to think of another director that had a similar rise and fall and received the same kind of disdain and mockery.
on a related note:
i wasn’t at sdcc, but i saw i09’s biggest winners/losers. looking at the film and tv projects coming, i’m even more pissed and depressed about the casting of racebender and the overall casting in general. shit’s getting whiter.
2010 and it’s still a pleasant unexpected surprise if something has more than a couple of POC that appear more than the cumulative 5 mins per ep., let alone if it has a POC as the lead
Posted 29 Jul 2010 at 11:00 am ¶
slntax wrote:
ya this is not just about the racial impact of avatar, but the effect of horrible films since the 6th sense. I wish there was more research done on this post instead of just jumping to the “its all about his mistakes on race” category.
Mod Note – This post is Arturo’s impressions from Comic-Con; we have a post scheduled for next week taking a critical look at M. Night’s bankability and box office. – LDP
Posted 29 Jul 2010 at 11:09 am ¶
CDF wrote:
LOL!
Posted 29 Jul 2010 at 11:36 am ¶
hapa wrote:
Yay!
Posted 29 Jul 2010 at 12:40 pm ¶
Myles wrote:
I love the work that Racebending has done. And I really wish I was able to attend the protest.
And I am elated that a new series from the original creators is coming out next year!
Also, has anyone else pointed out that M. Night is Asian, but all of his movies mainly feature White male stars?
Posted 29 Jul 2010 at 12:50 pm ¶
Chris wrote:
Here’s one interesting representation of M. Night’s decline:
http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2010/07/what-happened-to-m-night-shyamalan.html
Posted 29 Jul 2010 at 1:29 pm ¶
HalleBerry wrote:
I think the movie has a chance to be successful if it has the right director,CAST,writer and a proper vision of the show. Justin Lin perhaps?
Posted 29 Jul 2010 at 1:42 pm ¶
Ellis wrote:
Well there is some goodness left in the world.
I can’t wait for the legend of Korra.
Posted 29 Jul 2010 at 2:57 pm ¶
shemari wrote:
@Myles. Just because a Producer is a POC does not mean he’ll do right by other POC. He/she may hold racist views of POC or be so cautious of appearing racist (against Whites) or too race conscious that they simply uphold the status quo. They avoid casting POC or place them in stereotypical roles.
I guess the tide won’t turn until White players in the industry lead the way in giving us the representation we deserve.
M. Night peaked on his first movie and has been going downhill quickly since then. The Happening was a total crapfest.
Posted 29 Jul 2010 at 5:37 pm ¶
Stephen B wrote:
Looking forward to next week’s post about Shyamalan’s bankability! I’m sure the comments section will explode!
Posted 29 Jul 2010 at 6:45 pm ¶
urban Suburbinite wrote:
@ 7thangel
re: “i’m trying to think of another director that had a similar rise and fall and received the same kind of disdain and mockery.”
Uwe Boll comes to mind after he did “House of the Dead” and “BloodRayne” he became a joke.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0093051/
Although I cannot say for sure he was ever as critically acclaimed as M. Night. once was.
Funny! On Uwe Boll’s IMDb page in related articles news it has:
“Reporter Trashes M. Night Shyamalan’s Career to His Face”
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0093051/news#ni3395640
Posted 29 Jul 2010 at 9:35 pm ¶
tenacitus wrote:
I saw inception with my brother and sister in auburn. during the previews we saw the trailer for elevator or devils or whatever his new film is called. once his name came up the whole theatre burst into laughter.
Even after seeing one of uwe boll’s worst films, tunnel rats, i think he is a better director than mr shamlayan
Posted 29 Jul 2010 at 11:02 pm ¶
Westerly wrote:
Well – I agree that Shyamalan’s bankability and questionable artistic vision – but that many of the problems with TLA do in fact stem from Al lot of the suckage in that film really did come down to his casting choices and his insistence on white-washing the film.
I think that nothing short of brilliant, at this point will slavage his fading star and even his better films have never been ‘brilliant’ in my opinion.
Posted 30 Jul 2010 at 12:39 am ¶
7thangel wrote:
@ urban suburbanite
i knew some would bring up uwe, but he was never considered a star director. no rise and fall. however, uwe’s latest movie, rampage, is supposed to be good, but because of his rep, many won’t actually give it a chance
Posted 30 Jul 2010 at 8:19 am ¶
czarsketch wrote:
Okay. I’m glad M. Night is on the way out, because of the way he casts and how ridiculously blind he is to the racial implications of his latest work (I loved Avatar. I cry when I think about the movie he made).
BUT.
Don’t pat yourselves on the back. M. Night Shyamalan has been the butt of internet memes, jokes, and public ridicule because he makes BAD MOVIES, something MOST people agree with. The majority of people booing at these showings are not booing because he is a bigot, they are booing because he is a bad director.
I fully believe in the efforts of Racebending and the community of people who mounted the campaign against the racist casting of The Last Airbender, but in all honesty, this was (as is too often the case) only known to a minority of movie-goers.
Posted 30 Jul 2010 at 4:32 pm ¶
maus wrote:
Uwe Boll was never an critically acclaimed, well-loved director or profitable, though.
Posted 30 Jul 2010 at 7:17 pm ¶
TierListE wrote:
Hah the exact same thing happened to me when we went to the Scott Pilgrim early release this week.
Posted 30 Jul 2010 at 7:50 pm ¶
Perpetual Explosion wrote:
It doesn’t help that Devil sounds like a ridiculous cinematic turd from the premise alone: some people are trapped in an elevator, one of them is Satan. That’s it. If nobody knew who M.Night was, it would probably still be a flop. It’s like he’s forgotten how to make movies, or else he just isn’t trying anymore. If things keep going in this direction, his next film will consist of a single, 30-second cut of him farting, then flipping the bird at the camera and walking off.
Posted 31 Jul 2010 at 5:03 pm ¶
hjdf wrote:
The creator of racebending.com is my hero!
As for M night, he deserves all the respect he deserves (which is NONE if anyone is wondering)
Posted 08 Aug 2010 at 5:46 pm ¶