History Creator / MNightShyamalan

-->--Last sentence of a review of "Film/TheHappening'' in [[BritishNespapers The Guardian]]

-->--Last sentence of a review of "Film/TheHappening'' in [[BritishNespaoers The Guardian]]

->''Perhaps Shyamalan wanted to be a 21st-century Creator/[[GeorgeARomero]]. Instead I'm afraid he is turning into Creator/[[EdWoodJr]].''

->''Perhaps Shyamalan wanted to be a 21st-century [[Creator/GeorgeARomero]]. Instead I'm afraid he is turning into [[Creator/EdWoodJr]].''

->''Perhaps Shyamalan wanted to be a 21st-century George A Romero. Instead I'm afraid he is turning into Ed Wood Jr.''

Shyamalan still has an outstanding deal with Media Rights Capital to produce -- but not direct -- one film a year for the next three years. The first of these, ''The Night Chronicles: Film/{{Devil}}'', was released in September 2010. Trailers initially played up Shyamalan's involvement in the film, but due to negative reaction, this has reportedly been changed. His next film is a WillSmith vehicle called ''Film/AfterEarth''; notably, the trailer for ''After Earth'' makes absolutely ''no'' mention of Shyamalan's involvement. It's been compared to BattlefieldEarth, which is. Perfect example of how far he's fallen.

Once described as the next [[Creator/StevenSpielberg Spielberg], he's now being called his generation's [[Creator/EdWood]].

Shyamalan still has an outstanding deal with Media Rights Capital to produce -- but not direct -- one film a year for the next three years. The first of these, ''The Night Chronicles: Film/{{Devil}}'', was released in September 2010. Trailers initially played up Shyamalan's involvement in the film, but due to negative reaction, this has reportedly been changed. His next film is a WillSmith vehicle called ''Film/AfterEarth''; notably, the trailer for ''After Earth'' makes absolutely ''no'' mention of Shyamalan's involvement.

* FallenCreator: Viewer reaction to him has become so negative that the studio refused to use his name at all in promotions for ''Film/AfterEarth''.

* OneOfUs: More or less; he pioneered "realistic" {{Comic Book|s}} films out of his love for comics and is a [[http://blog.reelloop.com/9552/news/night-shyamalan-expresses-interest-breaking-dawn-big-fan-twilight/ fan of Twilight]], at least.

''Film/{{Signs}}'' (2002) is the first of his films to receive extensive mockery, centering around the now patented TwistEnding. Despite this, it was still very popular in cinemas and was his second-most-successful movie at the box-office. It was also the last of his films to not be universally savaged by critics.

His next film was ''Film/TheLastAirbender'' (2010), adapting the first season of ''[[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' (a show Shyamalan stated he was a great fan of) to the big screen. The previews to the movie caused some reservations (being [[LiveActionAdaptation live action]], the stigma against Shyamalan on itself, and {{Race Lift}}ing the main characters), but the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YgaVe19zs8 trailers won over many of the skeptics]]. However, less than one week after the release of the film, it garnered a near-universal negative reaction from both fans and critics alike, currently holding at 6% on [[RottenTomatoes Rotten Tomatoes.]] It's his highest-grossing film since ''Signs'', but still not a big success because of its huge budget and marketing costs.

* XPacHeat: The trailer for ''Devil'' definitely showed that he's sunk to this: many screenings had the audience very interested in the trailer, but then they started laughing and groaning the second Shyamalan's name appeared. It seems the marketing people for ''After Earth'' learned from this, as you'd never know he was involved without actively looking it up.

Shyamalan still has an outstanding deal with Media Rights Capital to produce -- but not direct -- one film a year for the next three years. The first of these, ''The Night Chronicles: Film/{{Devil}}'', was released in September 2010. Trailers initially played up Shyamalan's involvement in the film, but due to negative reaction, this has reportedly been changed. His next film is a WillSmith vehicle called ''After Earth''; notably, the trailer for ''After Earth'' makes absolutely ''no'' mention of Shyamalan's involvement.

Ohhhhh, M. Night Shyamalan (born Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan). Once considered amongst the most [[AuteurLicense promising directors in Hollywood]], famous predominantly for his [[TwistEnding twist endings]], in recent years seems to be rapidly falling to the same level as the likes of Uwe Boll and [[Creator/SeltzerAndFriedberg Seltzer & Friedberg]] -- if the critics are anything to go by.

Born in India, he was raised in Philadelphia, and most of his movies are set and filmed there. M. Night Shyamalan's first few feature films were ''Praying With Anger'' in 1992 and ''Wide Awake'' in 1998, both with heavy religious themes and were modestly received but not overtly successful.

High hopes were pinned on the director. Unfortunately, according to popular opinion, [[http://www.cracked.com/funny-5806-the-last-airbender-movie/ the rest of his filmography is just one long decline]].

His follow-up film, ''Film/{{Unbreakable}}'' (2000), is often overlooked in discussions as it's not the mega-hit that his first film was, though it was still well-received. Although it likely started the "realistic" comic book films years before ''Film/BatmanBegins'', it was viewed as low-key and "normal", to the point that many people are unaware of him being the director. This film also had a TwistEnding, and may have started the pattern for his movies to follow, which ended up creating a very negative HypeBacklash with every movie to follow.

''Film/{{Signs}}'' (2002) is the first of his films to receive extensive mockery, centering around the now patented TwistEnding. Despite this, it was still very popular in cinemas and was his second-most-successful movie at the box-office. It was also the last of his films to not be universally savaged by critics; had he stopped there, he probably would've been looked upon as a skilled filmmaker whose fondness for a formula was simply a trademark or style that didn't stop him from delivering three good films.

Then there was ''Film/TheVillage'' (2004). And ''Film/LadyInTheWater'' (2006). And ''Film/TheHappening'' (2008). ''Film/TheVillage'' had a few defenders and was quite profitable, but was still destroyed by critics mainly due the ending being too much of a curveball. ''Film/LadyInTheWater'' broke from the TwistEnding formula (being based on a bedtime story for his children), but became the point where he officially changed from "failing director" to "laughingstock". Casting none other than himself as a visionary but unrecognized author who becomes a martyr and savior while including a StrawCritic being killed in the film did ''not'' help. The movie bombed at the box office. A subsequent "making-of" book, ''The Man Who Heard Voices'', inadvertently gave the impression that he was an egomaniac who surrounded himself with sycophants, and was roundly mocked in the press. His next film, ''Film/TheHappening'', was supposed to be his WinBackTheCrowd movie, an R-rated horror about an apocalyptic event. It was well marketed, and more successful commercially, but soon became more famous as a SoBadItsGood movie than as a straight-up horror due to its plot being about evil plants.

Shyamalan still has an outstanding deal with Media Rights Capital to produce -- but not direct -- one film a year for the next three years. The first of these, ''The Night Chronicles: Film/{{Devil}}'', was released in September 2010. Trailers initially played up Shyamalan's involvement in the film, but due to negative reaction, this has reportedly been changed. His next film is a WillSmith vehicle called ''After Earth'', implying that he's open to anything if it means a good paycheck. Notably, the trailer for ''After Earth'' makes absolutely ''no'' mention of Shyamalan's involvement.

There are people who still like Shyamalan. One such person is Jonas Kyratzes, of [[http://www.commentarium.net/ Commentarium]] fame. You can find his reasoning for this, and his thoughts on why Shyamalan is now hated, in his review of The Happening, [[http://www.jonas-kyratzes.net/2008/06/12/m-night-shyamalan-and-the-happening/ here]]

* PrimaDonnaDirector: Shyamalan is infamous for casting himself as TheMessiah in ''Lady In The Water''. This combined with the StrawCritic in the film included just to kill him off ([[EnsembleDarkhorse who was ironically one of the most popular characters in the film]]) are supposedly how he thinks of himself. Much mockery from critics ensued.

Ohhhhh, M. Night Shyamalan (born Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan). Once considered amongst the most [[AuteurLicense promising directors in Hollywood]], famous predominantly for his [[TwistEnding twist endings]], in recent years seems to be rapidly falling to the same level as the likes of UweBoll and [[Creator/SeltzerAndFriedberg Seltzer & Friedberg]] -- if the critics are anything to go by.

His follow-up film, ''Film/{{Unbreakable}}'' (2000), is often overlooked in discussions as it's not the mega-hit that his first film was, though it was still well-received. Although it likely started the "realistic" comic book films years before ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', it was viewed as low-key and "normal", to the point that many people are unaware of him being the director. This film also had a TwistEnding, and may have started the pattern for his movies to follow, which ended up creating a very negative HypeBacklash with every movie to follow.

** Highlights included a near-death experience from drowning (which may explain why both ''Lady In The Water'' and ''Signs'' have lakes and rivers as a RecurringMotif), that most of his films are set within a 50 mile radius of each other, and that pictures with him in it had some odd light distortion.

* {{Mockumentary}}[=/=]{{Biography}}: [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0391311/ Scifi Network made one of him]]. It was ''weird.''

Ohhhhh, M. Night Shyamalan (born Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan). Once considered amongst the most [[AuteurLicense promising directors in Hollywood]], famous predominantly for his [[TwistEnding twist endings]], in recent years seems to be rapidly falling to the same level as the likes of UweBoll and [[SeltzerAndFriedberg Seltzer & Friedberg]] -- if the critics are anything to go by.

Shyamalan still has an outstanding deal with Media Rights Capital to produce -- but not direct -- one film a year for the next three years. The first of these, ''The Night Chronicles: Film/{{Devil}}'', was released in September 2010. Trailers initially played up Shyamalan's involvement in the film, but due to negative reaction, this has reportedly been changed. His next film is a WillSmith vehicle called ''After Earth'', implying that he's open to anything if it means a good paycheck.

** He certainly claims to be a huge fan of ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'', and apparently [[SoMyKidsCanWatch made the movie for his daughter.]]