M. Night Shyamalan was very much ahead of his time in terms of the whole comic book thing. The filmmaker has gone on the record several times, saying that when he made Unbreakable, the studio was very adamant that the comic book aspect of the story be pushed waaaaay back in the marketing — so much so that you likely wouldn’t have known about that connection unless you actually saw the film (gotta love the early-2000s).
And in spite of it almost being one of the first modern “comic book franchises,” Shyamalan himself has never actually made a comic book movie. The closest he’d gotten was with The Last Airbender, where he adapted the the Nickelodeon cartoon, but pretty much everything else has been original. So why not? Why has he actually turned down advances from Marvel and DC in the past? Shyamalan has a very particular reason, as he revealed to Yahoo! Entertainment:
“I want to make sure it’s right for everybody. I have a strong [filmmaking] accent. It’s very particular, and the best version of it is, to keep the accent. Are those movies [Marvel and DC superhero films] a place for that? Or is it appropriate for that?”
“Because they, in and of themselves, have their own flavor. Do they want this other tabasco in there? So it’s philosophically a question. It doesn’t mean [I’ll] never [do it], but it’s very hard to imagine. Filmmakers that have a heavy accent – I don’t necessarily want them to make those movies.”
RELATED – Glass Shattered By Critics, New Captain Marvel Trailer, Phoenix ‘Crushes’ Joker | Los Fanboys
I’ll admit, I’m half-tempted to roll my eyes at this. It’s very easy to shrug this off as pretentious, but he’s actually not wrong. It’s often very easy to pinpoint an M. Night Shyamalan movie based the direction and dialogue, and at the end of the day, the gig over at the major studios isn’t for everyone. As was widely publicized several years back, Edgar Wright was someone who couldn’t be put in the Marvel Studios box.
That being said, I’m sure Marvel Studios and DC would argue at this fact, and to some extent, I might agree. Thor: Ragnarok is very Taika Waititi; Guardians of the Galaxy is very James Gunn; Batman v Superman is very Zack Snyder. It’s not always a case where a filmmaker needs to be bland in order to be accepted, though it likely helps a lot of a director’s vision is at least in sync with the execs.
What do you think of Shyamalan’s comments? Do you think he’d make a good comic book movie? Let us know your thoughts down below!
Don’t forget to share this post on your Facebook wall and with your Twitter followers! Just hit the buttons on the top of this page.
SOURCE: Yahoo!