M. Night Shyamalan Officially Reveals the Bold Visual Trick in His New Psychological Thriller [Exclusive]
- Beyond Fest celebrates M. Night Shyamalan with Night Visions: The Shock and Awe of M. Night Shyamalan.
- Collider's Steve Weintraub speaks with Shyamalan about his career in a conversation that spans the past, present, and future.
- The director discusses the Unbreakable universe, Signs, The Village, his upcoming movie Remain, and more.
For the first time, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan attended a West Coast retrospective of his work for Beyond Fest, in collaboration with American Cinematheque. The annual genre festival hosted Night Visions: The Shock and Awe of M. Night Shyamalan, showcasing 12 of Shyamalan’s features, from The Sixth Sense to The Eastrail 177 Trilogy.
While attending the festival to participate in Q&As exploring his iconic body of work, Shyamalan spoke with Collider’s Steve Weintraub about what this retrospective means to him. In addition to revisiting his most defining films, Shyamalan also discusses his newest upcoming film, Remain, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Phoebe Dynevor and written by The Notebook author Nicholas Sparks. In the movie, Gyllenhaal plays Tate, a man haunted by grief, who moves to Cape Cod for a fresh start. While at a B&B, Tate meets a mysterious woman who leaves him questioning his beliefs about life and loss.
In this interview, Shyamalan reflects on his decades-spanning career and discusses why he continues to gravitate to and push for the unexpected. He shares his thoughts on the future of the Unbreakable universe, weighs in on the Signs debate, and opens up about working alongside the legendary Bruce Willis. He also teases a major detail you may have missed in the Remain trailer, and breaks down what it means within the context of the movie. Don’t miss the full conversation in the transcript below.
M. Night Shyamalan Reflects on 27 Years of Filmmaking
"It's kind of a piece of art that existed in culture, and I can take it in more in a lovely way."
COLLIDER: So you're doing Beyond Fest. This retrospective that you're doing is 12 films spanning 27 years. I know you're famously in Philadelphia 24/7, so how did they convince you to actually come out and do this?
M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN: It was Christian Parks who convinced me, and he kept planting the seed really early. When he saw the retrospective at Lincoln Center that they did on my movies, he's like, “You’ve got to come West Coast. You got to come to the West Coast. Let's do it. Let's do it.”
Originally, I was feeling like I’ll be pretty close to being done with the movie, and maybe it could work out. It might be a lovely thing. It's so sweet to reflect on the movies, so it was something he convinced me of. A long time ago, he convinced me to come to Fantastic Fest with Split, and that went really well, and it was such a lovely experience. So, I really enjoy coming to festivals and meeting the people that come to festivals.
I don't know if you've ever screened Unbreakable, Split, and Glass on the same day, back-to-back, and then done a Q&A?
SHYAMALAN: I don't think so. That will be so fun, and I hope the fans aren't too tired after watching back-to-back-to-back.
I would 100% be there, but I'm in Salt Lake. It bums me out. Also, you're doing five films on the same day and two different Q&As. Talk a little bit about what this means to you. Also, all your screenings are sold out, which is great.
SHYAMALAN: Oh, I know. It's so lovely. I'm definitely in a reflection period, and everything I'm trying to do right now is kind of being grateful for what has happened and then being courageous for what's going to come. I think it's difficult for artists that have been around a long time to not become like a stone that's been smoothed over — the edge is gone — and I don't want that. I want to remind myself of things that I've forgotten, and maybe for the first time, sometimes, enjoying those moments that I was just powering through. Maybe you and I talked on a previous film, and I was finishing it and rushing it out and trying to get it, and then having a reaction to everyone's reaction.
Now, it's different. It's kind of a piece of art that existed in culture, and I can take it in more in a lovely way. Because when I'm writing things to begin with, they're coming from someplace very personal, and ultimately, until I reflect on it, I don't even remember why I put the pen to paper. Saying it out loud reminds you sometimes of important things that you forget. It's kind of like a diary we get to have a little bit. I get to write in the diary.
Why Shyamalan Still Wants to Take Big Swings With Every Movie
"I feel like I'm doing Digger every single time."
You're also in a very, very unique and lucky place. You've built this for yourself, but you can literally make any movie that you want to make. Someone will either give you the financing, or you've shown you'll just pay for it yourself. So as you think about the next decade of films that you want to make, how much are you thinking about, “I want to take a big swing the way Tom Cruise and Alejandro [Iñárritu] just did with Digger?”
SHYAMALAN: I could be wrong, and you tell me what your feeling is about it, but sometimes I feel like I'm doing Digger every single time. I'm like, “Okay, this one family member has to kill each other to save the world. Okay, in this one, everybody dies on a beach.” Or “This one, the protagonist is the antagonist. He's a serial killer, but you love him!” And each time, I think I'm drawn to, “I've never felt this before, and I don't know the format.” Sometimes, it's there, there's a format, but most of the time I'm drawn to that.
Let me show you something. This is the new one after Remain right here, and it's just notes. But I'm excited because I'm drawn to, “Wow. I've never felt that. I've never felt that. Oh, that's really shocking and provocative.” So, I hopefully will always be drawn to that and try not to be safe.
I think by keeping the budgets at a certain level, by paying for them myself, by saying, “Hey, I don't have to convince somebody; I'm going to do it. So if you want to join in a responsible swing, I'd love to do it with you,” that allows me to go, “Whoa! I could do anything to the character that's in the hotel room right before his Q&A. Anything can happen to him!”
You are 100% correct. Not many have the balls to pay for their own movies and do what you're doing, and I really, really do love your art, so I really appreciate what you do.
The Future of the 'Unbreakable' Universe
Shyamalan teases the supernatural characters still in his head.
I love the Unbreakable movies, all three of them. Do you see that door closed in terms of, do you see another movie happening in that universe?
SHYAMALAN: I don't think so. Partly because Bruce [Willis] is so central to that. But I have characters in my head that pop into my head, and one in particular that could easily coexist in that universe. It just pops into my head, “Oh, wow. That's a really cool character that has a power.” And so this one that I have in my head that popped in could easily be in that world, but I don't want to jam it in and force it into something. It's more I just like thinking of contemporary supernatural characters that could easily be in a comic book.
Do you know what happens in the world after the ending of Glass once the footage exposing extraordinary people goes public?
SHYAMALAN: I mean, the thesis was that so many more wake up, so many more hear that little calling and that little itch that they were ignoring, or thought they were crazy, that they have an intuition, or they could do this thing that seemed incredible and they dismissed it. They actively go at it to see if they're one of these people.
M. Night Shyamalan Opens Up About Bruce Willis
"He started my career..."
Something that I'm very curious about, and I'm not sure if you want to talk about it, is I know people that were working with Bruce in the years before his diagnosis, and he was dealing with stuff. I’m just curious, how much did Glass get impacted by what he was going through, or was he still at the beginning? I don't know if you want to talk about it, but I've always been curious if that movie might have ended differently had Bruce not been going through what he was going through.
SHYAMALAN: You're very sweet to couch your questions with such gentleness. You've always been very human when we have conversations. It goes a long way for all of us, so I appreciate that.
I would say it was complicated. That's all I'll say. He is my big brother, will always be. The fragility of life, you know? It's like these Supermen, like Christopher Reeve, represent so much of what we want to be, and they're superheroes to us. To me as a person, he's kind of a superhero to me. He was the big brother that allowed me to have a career and protected me. So, there's so many complicated emotions about it all. I’m so happy I got to make those movies, including Glass. I think in many ways, Glass was his last movie.
100%.
SHYAMALAN: So, just an honor that he started my career and I could be there with him as he moved on to other things in his life.
I totally get it.
What Happens Beyond 'The Village'?
Shyamalan reveals what could finally expose the lie.
Do you know what happens to Ivy and Lucius after The Village? Have you ever imagined their lives beyond the final scene?
SHYAMALAN: The idea of continuing the lie for the right reasons, to maintain the kind of innocence of it, I would imagine it could go on for a little longer. But there are futures that they couldn't have imagined, that I couldn't have imagined when I wrote The Village — A.I. and drones. I mean, I didn't know any of this stuff was going to happen when I wrote it. There's teenagers with drones going, “There are people in there!” [Laughs] It would be hard to maintain it, so I would imagine in a future, whether it's five years or 10 years or 20 years, it would be infiltrated by the real world, and then they would have woken up anyway.
The filmmaker officially shares his views on the demons versus aliens conversation.
One of the things people still debate about Signs is whether the creatures are literally aliens or whether they're meant to be something more spiritual or demonic about them. In your mind, is there a definitive answer?
SHYAMALAN: Yeah, for me, they're aliens. But the movie is full of this kind of taking a science-fiction premise and overlaying spirituality and the loss of faith on it, and that there is a larger, binding force that even includes aliens. So, I think the nexus of what you're talking about is a fascinating one.
At that moment when I was writing it, the idea of believing in something… You know, [Steven] Spielberg so much made me believe as a kid in things I can't see, that wonder, hitting the wonder button in me, which is so close to faith in a religious sense, as well. Those things are so close together, so I understand why it's there. I almost don't want to dissect it too much because they're so close.
I've always thought it's aliens, but I'm just asking.
M. Night Shyamalan Explains 'Remain's Hidden Trailer Detail
Shyamalan reveals the meaning behind the shifting aspect ratio.
I really do have to ask you about Remain. There is a shot in the trailer that I love when Jake [Gyllenhaal]'s in the hallway, and the screen expands. Is that something that's going to be part of the movie, that at certain points the screen is going to expand? Can you talk about putting that in the trailer, its impact in the movie, and for people that don't know anything, what the film is about?
SHYAMALAN: Yes, it is a part of the movie. The ratio change happens and signifies a format change, as well, to a different camera in the conversation. What Adolpho [Veloso], the DP, and I ultimately decided is — once you see the movie, we can talk about it — but it represents a certain element of the movie that starts to come in and out of the movie, and so it represents that.
Does that mean in the movie the frame will expand and then it will also go back down and then the frame will expand, so multiple times it will change, or is it transform at one moment and that's the rest of the film?
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