Deatils About M. Night Shyamalan’s Next Film ‘Glass’

M. Night Shyamalan is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is known for making films with contemporary supernatural plots and twist endings. His most well-received films include the supernatural thriller ‘The Sixth Sense’ released in 1999, the superhero thriller ‘Unbreakable’ in 2000, the science fiction thriller ‘Signs’ in 2002, and the historical thriller ‘The Village’ in 2004. For ‘The Sixth Sense’, he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director. In July 2000, on ‘The Howard Stern Show’, Shyamalan said he had met with Steven Spielberg and was in early talks to write the script for the fourth Indiana Jones film. This would have given him a chance to work with his longtime idol. After the film fell through, he later said it was too “tricky” to arrange and “not the right thing” for him to do.

His name was linked with the 2001 film ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’, but it conflicted with the production of ‘Unbreakable’. In July 2006, while doing press tours for ‘Lady in the Water’, he had said he was still interested in directing one of the last two Harry Potter films: “The themes that run through it…the empowering of children, a positive outlook…you name it, it falls in line with my beliefs”, he said. “I enjoy the humor in it. When I read the first Harry Potter and was thinking about making it, I had a whole different vibe in my head of it”. His 2002 film ‘Signs’, where he also played Ray Reddy, gained both critical and financial success. His next movie ‘The Village’ released in 2004 received mixed reviews from the critics, but turned out to be a financial success.

Afterward, he released a series of poorly received but sometimes financially successful movies, including the dark fantasy ‘Lady in the Water’ in 2006, the eco-thriller ‘The Happening’ in 2008, the film adaptation of ‘The Last Airbender’ in 2010, and the science fiction film ‘After Earth’ in 2013. Following the financial failure of ‘After Earth’, his career was revived with the successful release of the found footage horror film ‘The Visit’ in 2015 and the psychological thriller ‘Split’ in 2016. In addition to his directorial work, he was a producer for the horror film ‘Devil’ in 2010. He was also instrumental in the creation of the Fox science fiction series ‘Wayward Pines’, for which he executive produced and directed the pilot episode.

M. Night Shyamalan has been one of the most interesting figures in contemporary Hollywood. His spectacular rise, his infamous fall and his exciting resurrection may not share the same intensity as his finest works, but they make up for a brilliant case study. He isn’t a great auteur, far from being one, but like most of them he possesses a distinct knack for style. The style comes with substance too, and though he does get carried away with scripts which can only be completely comprehended by him and sometimes takes years for hardcore fans to analyse, these topsy-turvy ambiguous narratives are bound to keep you on the edge of the seat.

Out of the catchy camerawork, ethereal soundtracks and startling scenes in his movies, the one thing that has gifted him both acclaim and lemons, is his endings. No matter how strange the movie is, we know the ending solves it, even though at times it is anti-climatic. Having a wicked ending in every feature isn’t a bad thing, if it is executed properly. Alfred Hitchcock says “When you finish the script, the film is perfect. But in shooting it you lose perhaps 40 percent of your original conception “.

 

Unbreakable: Released in 2000, Unbreakable is a movie that was way ahead of its time and transcended the superhero genre onto a plane that it always ends up repelling, the plane of realism. While being the most humanely constructed origin story, it also features an iconic beginning to something that was shelved because of the negative response. The beginning of Shyamalan’s Universe, whose existence was guaranteed by the release of ‘Split’ last year. That beginning or the end of Unbreakable is his strongest ending. Though it may not be as shocking as The Sixth Sense’s plot twist, cinematically it is perfect.

With the lovely soundtrack by James Newton Howard in the background complimenting Samuel L Jackson’s strongest moments on screen, it is nothing short of heartbreaking. We had been rooting for both the stars, and were intrigued by Price’s mysterious charm. But this was soon turned into horror as we realise the extent of his obsession, and though many were dejected over this reveal, people soon started looking at the possibilities this scenario presented, which hopefully may be covered in his next ‘Glass’

Spilt:  Imagine having 24 different personalities. 1 for each hour, and believe me Mondays wouldn’t be the same! On a serious note, I’ll be considering both the endings of Split, the actual as well as the pre credits one. After a rather disappointing climax, the ending is swarmed by a bittersweet feeling. It carries on the tone of Kevin Crumb’s unfortunate transformation, while hinting at Casey Cook’s stance in the upcoming projects. It shows how two victims of childhood trauma, no matter how different they may appear to be still harbour the pain. We also see the moment we yearned for, KC’s 3 primary personas sharing the same frame, with some brilliant utilisation of the reverse shot technique. The scene ends, and then M.Night sent me and thousands of other movie-goers into a meltdown by adding the ‘Unbreakable’ theme. This was followed by the ending Unbreakable fans were waiting for 17 years, and their guesses were given the green signal by David Dunn’s cameo and his mention of Mr Glass. Of course, we hope that ‘Glass’ will further bring together the worlds of ‘Unbreakable’ and ‘Split’. With that let’s look in detail what his upcoming new film in store.

Glass (2019)

‘Glass’ is an upcoming American superhero horror-thriller film written, co-produced and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. The film is intended to be the third and final installment in the Unbreakable series, which includes, ‘Unbreakable’ and ‘Split’. After the financial and critical success of ‘Split’, in February 2017, Shyamalan affirmed his next film would be the third work in the ‘Unbreakable/Split’ trilogy. He finished the script by April 2017 and started the production process for the movie, announcing that it would be called ‘Glass’ and with a target release date of January 18, 2019. Universal will be distributing the film in North America and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, will distribute the film internationally.

The film is scheduled to be released on January 18, 2019 by Universal Pictures in North America and by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures in international territories. Principal photography on the film began on October 2, 2017 in Philadelphia, following a week of rehearsals. The final scene for ‘Split’ includes the appearance of David Dunn, played by Bruce Willis. Shyamalan included Dunn here to connect ‘Split’ to ‘Unbreakable’, with Dunn on learning about the escape of “The Beast”, realizing that there are other superhumans in the world, as predicted by Mr. Glass (Samuel Jackson). Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Spencer Treat Clark, and Charlayne Woodard will reprise their ‘Unbreakable’ roles, while James McAvoy and Anya Taylor-Joy will return as their ‘Split’ characters, along with Sarah Paulson joining the cast. Shyamalan has a reputation of keeping his plots a secret and his name has become synonymous with twist endings in the years since ‘The Sixth Sense’ first debuted. Hence, not much is known about the plot of the movie.

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