M. Night Shyamalan signs big deal with Warner Bros. for his next movie, Trap
Shyamalan has signed a multi-year first-look deal with the studio that includes his mysterious next film, currently set for an August 2024 release
Aux News Warner Bros
M. Night Shyamalan has a well-earned reputation as a independent agent in Hollywood, albeit one whose last five movies—the career re-invigorating, After Earth-erasing run from 2015's The Visit through this year’s Knock At The Cabin—have all been distributed by a single company. (Universal, by the by.) That’s about to change at least a little, though, as Deadline reports that Warner Bros. (on something of an odd little spending spree of late, having recently signed similar deals with Akiva Goldsman and Elvis’ Baz Luhrmann) has signed a multi-year first-look deal with Shyamalan for his next several films.
Most prominent among that list: Trap, the director’s (completely mysterious) next movie, which is currently aimed at an August 2024 release. There’s also The Watchers, which will be the directorial debut of Shyamalan’s daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan; both movies are set up at Shyamalan’s Blinding Edge Pictures.
As it happens, Shyamalan has made exactly one movie with Warner Bros. to date: 2006's Lady In The Water. And while studios normally aren’t especially anxious to re-team with directors who made $76 million at the box office for a $70 million movie—regardless of how unappreciated its approach to fairy tale storytelling might be—Shyamalan’s recent track record speaks for itself: Low budgets, big box office returns. (As Deadline notes, he’s one of the rare directors to have a No. 1 opening film in four different decades of movie-making, with no apparent sign that he won’t be angling for a fifth.)
Meanwhile, Warner Bros. has, to put none too fine a point on it, spent the last few years hitting its reputation with creators in the head with a shovel, first with its handling of streaming releases onto HBO Max during the COVID lockdowns, and then with all the aggressive cuts and cancellations it’s been making since it merged with Discovery. In other words, it could also use a little clout with some big-name creatives (and also Akiva Goldsman), so it’s not hard to see why the studio might want to hop onboard a Shyamalan train that gets a little further from The Last Airbender every single day.
24 Comments
I love traps
Glad to hear it.
I’m guessing within six months of principal photography wrapping this will be shelved in another Zaslav maneuver.
That’s the spirit..
Here’s hoping.
Have never watched a Shyamalan film in my life. Where should I start?The only thing I know is “Jizz in my Pants” spoiled the end of the Sixth Sense for me.
Guess you should start with that then… or just watch by release order which is what you generally should be doing
Well if The Sixth Sense is out, then start with The Visit to The Village After Earth’s Unbreakable Split which will show Signs The Last Airbender is Happening before The Lady in the Water gets Old.
The Happening!
The only movie with a villian that isTHE WIND
You should start by continuing to not watch them.
Sixth Sense still holds up if you know the ending. Otherwise I’d suggest Signs. If you like either, give Unbreakavle, Old, and The Village a try.
Sixth Sense still holds up if you know the ending. That’s true because.. I’m not bragging, but when I first watched the movie, I thought – “no way he survived a point-blank shot like that”, then thought, “oh, he didn’t”. Then, it was fun watching each scene as it played out, to see if I was right, as characters (besides the kid) seemed to be interacting, but weren’t. I have no way to know but I actually found that to be a better way to first see the movie than to be surprised.
The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable are very good. That’s about it.
Failing sideways
My favorite Yardbirds song.
Am i misreading this article because i know that while this run of movies he’s had after the happening have made money, other than Split they’ve either had middling reviews or a bad reception along the lines of the village. And why does this article seem like a glowing advertisement for his work when the avclub has given all of his recent films around a meh C rating on average?I mean, I’m gonna need more than a Meh kinda movie to ever get me to watch something from him again after lady in the goddamn water. Ones of the worst f-ing movies I’ve ever seen.
As someone who has met him several times (he’s a Philly guy, doesn’t live far from me in ‘burbs. A very good friend of mine works on all of his movies)- this dude has the Midas touch. After those well-publicized big studio debacles, he started pretty much self-financing his own movies. He made an absolute fortune doing so. His model works. Dude has made serious bank. Was at his house for his annual Halloween charity party a few years ago. It’s incredible. WB- buy-in for relative cheap, churn out a bunch of movies, make steady returns? Yes, please. Seems like this would work for the streaming model as well…
And yes, my buddy and his other crew who works on the movies also think he sticks himself in his movies too much, just like you do.
At his Halloween party, did he kneel?
He made like a fuckin’ circus seal!
Yeah, this news makes me happy for him. After the studios and general public got sick of his schtick, he doubled down and invested in himself. Made movies that were cheap enough that he just needed enough people to see them, not *everyone.* stuck to his guns, and it paid off.
Admiral Ackbar bio-pic?
I misread the movie title as Tarp. Your comment cleared it up for me. Thank you.
Finally The Flophouse tarp gets a film treatment that doesn’t involve being in decades old Misty Mundae movies.
Misty Mundae is due for both a reboot and a legacy sequel despite the fact that she is a human being and not a movie. Either way, unpack the tarp!