Director M. Night Shyamalan blasted onto the Hollywood scene with the suspense thriller Sixth Sense starring Bruce Willis. He had a stellar career ahead of him, and with the following 2 movies ‘Unbreakable‘ and ‘Signs‘ he was one of the hottest directors on the block. Sadly the wheels came off completely. With The Village being his last great movie back in 2004. Lady in the Water (2006), The Happening (2008) and The Last Airbender (2010) did anything but move his career forward.
We felt he redeemed himself to a certain extend with Will Smith’s ‘After Earth‘, although many fans will disagree. Actually scrap that…After Earth was really bad and M. Night Shyamalan needs to redeem himself in a big way. It would seem like the chance he’s been waiting for to do so has finally arrived.
Latest news is that he has finally decided to go ahead with one of his earliest projects (even before he did The Sixth Sense’) called Labour of Love. Fox picked up the script back in 1993, but it didn’t go anyway because Shyamalan wanted to direct it, and they didn’t want him to. Several years ago Denzel Washington was looking to do it, but it didn’t pan out. The story doesn’t have the supernatural elements that we have come to expect from the writer/director. This is a smaller scale film in which Shyamalan will team up with Bruce Willis again:
“A Philadelphia book store owner loses the love of his life in a tragic accident. Never big on words, he becomes haunted by the notion that he never properly told his wife how much he loved her. Since she once asked if he would walk across the country for her, he decides to show her posthumously just how much he did love her. That trek starts from Philadelphia to Pacifica, CA, which was her favourite place.”
Sounds interesting, but a completely different genre we’ve become accustomed to with Shyamalan. What do you think? Will M. Night Shyamalan redeem himself?