{"id":10726,"date":"2006-08-10T16:28:31","date_gmt":"2006-08-10T16:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2006\/08\/10\/bedtime-story-to-hollywood-blockbuster\/"},"modified":"2006-08-10T16:28:31","modified_gmt":"2006-08-10T16:28:31","slug":"bedtime-story-to-hollywood-blockbuster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2006\/08\/10\/bedtime-story-to-hollywood-blockbuster\/","title":{"rendered":"Bedtime story to Hollywood Blockbuster"},"content":{"rendered":"
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M Night Shyamalan on his new film<\/h3>\n
\"\"M Night Shyamalan is the modern day m<\/span><\/strong>as<\/span><\/strong>ter of suspense. Think The Sixth Sense, Signs and The Village and you\u2019ll instantly know what we\u2019re talking about. The gifted <\/span><\/strong>Hollywood<\/span><\/strong> hot-shot is back with his latest film \u2018Lady in the Water\u2019, a film, he says is b<\/span><\/strong>as<\/span><\/strong>ed on a fairytale told to his daughters. <\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n

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Here he reveals all about \u2018Lady in the Water\u2019 and how Spike Lee proved to be his filmmaking inspiration <\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n

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How is it to make a film out of a story you told your kids?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/div>\n

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It is the same <\/span>as<\/span> it always is when I tell my girls stories, which is: you don’t know what’s going to happen.\u00a0You don\u2019t know.\u00a0And that’s dangerous and wonderful.\u00a0Literally, I go, \u2018Should we tell a story?\u2019\u00a0And they go, \u2018Yeah.\u2019\u00a0And I say, \u2018What should I tell about?\u2019\u00a0And they say, \u2018About this gl<\/span>as<\/span>s.\u2019\u00a0And I go, \u2018Okay, so there\u2019s this man that blows gl<\/span>as<\/span>s, and you know what blowing gl<\/span>as<\/span>s is?\u00a0When you put your own air and your own lungs in it.\u00a0And one day he w<\/span>as<\/span> really sad and he blew the gl<\/span>as<\/span>s, and the gl<\/span>as<\/span>s became a different color.\u2019\u00a0I just make that up <\/span>as<\/span> I’m talking about this gl<\/span>as<\/span>s, right?\u00a0And we would start going for another half an hour.\u00a0And I don\u2019t know where that’s going, but it’ll end up in this amazing place.\u00a0And there’s this mania that happens because I keep on talking.\u00a0And the girls can tell I don’t know where I’m going, and then it suddenly goes, \u2018Oh,\u2019 and they go, \u2018Uh huh.\u2019\u00a0And we all discover it at the same moment.\u00a0And that w<\/span>as<\/span> how I wanted to make this movie.\u00a0I wanted it to be a two-year version of that \u2018I don\u2019t know what’s going to happen.\u2019\u00a0But I have an unbelievable faith that at the end of the day, it’s all going to be a part of its own language.\u00a0Hiring [cinematographer] Chris Doyle, hiring the actors that I hired, making it in the way I made it, in the f<\/span>as<\/span>hion that I made it, holding onto elements of the movie that were certain to destroy the movie, all just holding on with faith.\u00a0It felt like a two-year version of that process of telling the story in my kids’ bedroom, where I don’t really know where the gl<\/span>as<\/span>s blowing is going, and I know his breath is important, that that’s going to come to me, <\/span>as<\/span> I’m telling the story.<\/span><\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/div>\n

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Is that how you came up with the idea of <\/span><\/strong>Cleveland<\/span><\/strong> Heep trying to breathe underwater?<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/div>\n

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No.\u00a0I knew he w<\/span>as<\/span> going to be a supervisor of a building.\u00a0That just felt right \u2013 somebody who does a mundane job.\u00a0But then the idea that he’s hiding there w<\/span>as<\/span> a very powerful idea, that she uncovers that he’s hiding, this idea of him walking up the stairs with the garbage w<\/span>as<\/span> very Sisyphian, rolling a boulder up the hill kind of thing.\u00a0\u00a0 This is his self-imposed punishment, for what he feels he w<\/span>as<\/span> lacking.\u00a0He w<\/span>as<\/span>n’t there for his family, and he just gave up.\u00a0This is his punishment.\u00a0And he’s at peace with the punishment, and so he just wants to go do his thing.\u00a0That is a really interesting main character for me to write about.\u00a0That’s where <\/span>Cleveland<\/span> came from. <\/span><\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/div>\n

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Why w<\/span><\/strong>as<\/span><\/strong> this sense of community that comes from living in an apartment an important element to the film?<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/div>\n

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That whole Rear Window<\/em>, everyone getting together thing.\u00a0Some person said that it w<\/span>as<\/span> the reverse of Rosemary’s Baby<\/em> \u2013 a group of people getting together to do good.\u00a0But this idea of strangers in an apartment building w<\/span>as<\/span> really powerful, and this idea of finding the characters, almost like an Agatha Christie mystery.\u00a0Who’s the interpreter?\u00a0Who is this?\u00a0And you get it all wrong, and then you try again.\u00a0It’s fun to learn about your neighbors.\u00a0I love the idea of gathering strangers into a bathroom.\u00a0It’s very endearing to have a re<\/span>as<\/span>on to cross paths with your neighbors.<\/span><\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/div>\n

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Everybody liked the dispatching of the critic.\u00a0Why is the critic there?<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/div>\n

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Yes, he stopped learning.\u00a0It w<\/span>as<\/span> the character that stopped learning in the movie that w<\/span>as<\/span>n’t able to respect the story, the power of the story.\u00a0The whole movie is about storytelling <\/span>as<\/span> a metaphor for life, <\/span>as<\/span> religion.\u00a0You know what I mean?\u00a0We stopped respecting that the story is unlimited and h<\/span>as<\/span> you involved.\u00a0We don’t know how it’s going to play out; and it can play out in unusual and new ways.\u00a0There are things to learn about the world.\u00a0All those things, which is a childlike thing, to believe in that.\u00a0And we forget those things.\u00a0To stop learning is, I guess, my greatest fear, that I myself will have too much experience.\u00a0There is a beautiful balance to inexperience and point of view that people almost intersect, and then they lose it by putting on all this dangerous stuff.\u00a0And by dangerous I mean like manic.\u00a0And going back to that philosophy of storytelling to my kids, I got back to inexperience in just the right way.\u00a0I don’t know how to pull this off.\u00a0I don’t know how to do this in the greatest way.\u00a0But I have faith that I’m coming from the right places, that this story is the right story to tell, that finding your purpose is a powerful idea, those kind of things: have faith and then it will all fold back together again.<\/span><\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/div>\n

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What do you mean when you say that some of the characters in this film are \u2018a link in the chain\u2019?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/div>\n

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It’s this idea that a person is told that their contribution is going to be important down line.\u00a0It will cause a chain of events that every single person in that chain of events needs to do their thing, but you are crucial in that chain of events \u2013 a link in the chain.\u00a0That’s part one.\u00a0And part two is:\u00a0what would you be willing to do to ensure that your message gets out there?\u00a0Would you be willing to make sacrifices?\u00a0I’m not all that brave a guy.\u00a0If the building w<\/span>as<\/span> burning down and you were burning in it, I’d be like, \u2018Somebody help her!\u2019\u00a0I would probably consider it, and I would try to go in, and I would be really torn because I’d be scared to death.\u00a0But if I knew you were an author, and I knew you were an amazing author, and the only copy of your book w<\/span>as<\/span> in the building, I probably wouldn’t hesitate at all, to go in, not even for a second, to jump in that building and get that book.\u00a0Don’t know why I’m built like that.\u00a0The preservation of an idea is far more important than anything I can imagine.\u00a0You know what I mean?\u00a0Something I always talk about with the younger actors when we were on the film and were just hanging out is \u2018What would you be willing to do to really connect?\u00a0Would you be willing to do everything you needed to do, give away ego, do other things, tr<\/span>as<\/span>h everything that you’ve achieved to make this one connection, if you could do it just one time?\u2019\u00a0It’s a powerful idea, this idea of what you’d be willing to do, if you’re told what your link in the chain w<\/span>as<\/span>, and what w<\/span>as<\/span> going to happen to you.\u00a0Would that be satisfying enough \u2013 to be part of that chain?<\/span><\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/div>\n

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What were the risks of making this film?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/div>\n

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I’m responsible, and I know when I\u2019m making calculated risks here and there.\u00a0This w<\/span>as<\/span> an acrobat move.\u00a0I actually felt like on that side of the hill is unlimited potential.\u00a0If I can get to the other side of that hill, there’s unlimited potential.\u00a0I don’t know if I can, but it’s in this point of view that I might be able to get there.\u00a0Can you see that possibly happening?\u00a0Walking into a movie theater and having a unique emotional journey in this day and age in the movies, the way moviemaking is now, and for two hours having a unique thing happen to you, and have it come out positive, and believe again?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Having an epiphany of some kind, an emotional response, is possible.\u00a0I may not get there; most probably I won’t get there.\u00a0But there’s a nice feeling that there’s something on that side.\u00a0That’s how I felt here, and I wanted everyone to feel that potential.\u00a0My God, if we could get on that side of the mountain, it would be fant<\/span>as<\/span>tic.\u00a0I like where we are.\u00a0At the end of the summer, in the summer with blockbusters all from previous materials, I like where we are.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/div>\n

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Does this film take on issues of faith in the religious sense?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/div>\n

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I’m not a big traditional Orthodox religious fan.\u00a0That’s not my thing.\u00a0Those are the good stories too.\u00a0But I can’t devote myself to the form of the story.\u00a0These are all just metaphors, and so it should be taken that way.\u00a0Just a conversation of: Do we believe in believing anymore?\u00a0Have we given that up?\u00a0We’re all definitely lost now.\u00a0That’s what The Village<\/em> w<\/span>as<\/span> about \u2013 when everybody w<\/span>as<\/span> important to the process.\u00a0So, I needed you, and I needed you.\u00a0We all needed each other.\u00a0Everything w<\/span>as<\/span> imbued with meaning.\u00a0\u00a0 But now, we’re freezing to death in this room of air conditioning.\u00a0We don’t even know who put it on. (laughter) We don’t know what’s happening.\u00a0So, it’s all lost, and we all just accept it.\u00a0We accept so much ambiguity now.\u00a0And there’s kind of the purity of the storytelling where Paul desperately is telling these people, believe in believing again, and only a guy who had given up, who had zero, could make that speech to them.\u00a0\u2018Let\u2019s take a leap of faith.\u00a0What’s it going to hurt us if we genuinely click our heels and believe here?\u2019<\/span><\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/div>\n

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Why did you choose to play the writer figure?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/div>\n

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I w<\/span>as<\/span> suggested by someone to play Farber, the critic, which would have been funny. But that particular character \u2013 this idea of being a writer who’s told that what you’re doing is important \u2013 it\u2019s a dream of all writers because they all said that it’s the most torturous moment, to be a writer, the blank page, and this sucks!\u00a0This sucks!\u00a0And for someone to tell you that it\u2019s going to have an impact, like Harriet Beecher Stowe, the idea of me playing Harriett Beecher Stowe, this idea of someone who writes a book that then later h<\/span>as<\/span> implications that you never realized.\u00a0Someone like <\/span>Lincoln<\/span> will then read it, and then have a point of view, and then change things.\u00a0That you are part of an incredible chain of events is a powerful thing that I have seen happen in my own life.\u00a0I tell this story in every interview; I’m going to tell it one more time:\u00a0I w<\/span>as<\/span> in <\/span>JFK<\/span>Airport<\/span>, and I w<\/span>as<\/span> driving with my parents.\u00a0I’m 12 years old, and the flight’s delayed, so I went in the bookstore.\u00a0I got a book, which is Spike Lee’s book, She’s Gotta Have It<\/em>, where he talks about making his first film.\u00a0And I read this thing and I go, \u2018You can just make movies?\u00a0You can just go out and make movies?\u00a0This is crazy.\u00a0I didn’t know you could do that.\u2019\u00a0And I w<\/span>as<\/span> like, \u2018Wow, this is legitimately something I could go do.\u2019\u00a0So, life goes on.\u00a0I decided to go to film school, and I go, and I make movies.\u00a0Luckily, people go to see them; I make money; I start a foundation; the foundation gets involved with this community in India where this woman stood up to these pillaging people and started to educate the women in her town; and I am now going to help those people and save lives and save those children.\u00a0That means Spike Lee saving lives in that town.\u00a0He w<\/span>as<\/span> a link in a chain that he is completely unaware of, by empowering me, who then empowers other people and we keep being part of a chain of events.\u00a0It’s a real thing that happens.\u00a0It’s an amazing thing.\u00a0If someone told Spike, \u2018You know what?\u00a0Yeah, you’re going to make movies and all that stuff.\u00a0But actually what’s going to happen is you\u2019re going to save about 10 children’s lives in a town in <\/span>India<\/span> if you just write this book.\u2019\u00a0I mean, he wouldn’t believe it.\u00a0You know what I mean?\u00a0But it’s what happens.\u00a0And it continues to happen, this network, a veining of positive actions.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/div>\n

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Did you ever tell Spike that?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/div>\n

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No.\u00a0No I haven’t.\u00a0I do, I talk to Spike a lot, but I didn’t tell him that.\u00a0He’ll think I’m corny.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Lady in the Water is rele<\/span><\/strong>as<\/span><\/strong>ed nationwide on August 11th<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n

\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

M Night Shyamalan on his new film M Night Shyamalan is the modern day master of suspense. Think The Sixth Sense, Signs and The Village and you\u2019ll instantly know what we\u2019re talking about. The gifted Hollywood hot-shot is back with his latest film \u2018Lady in the Water\u2019, a film, he says is based on a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}