M. Night Shyamalan

M. Night Shyamalan (last name pronounced /ˈʃɑməˌlɑn/), born Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan, on August 6, 1970 in Pondicherry, India, is best known as a writer, director, and producer of American films. His biggest hit came in 1999 with the critically-acclaimed The Sixth Sense, starring Haley Joel Osment and Bruce Willis, which grossed $293 million.

Early Life and Family

Shyamalan was raised in Penn Valley, Pennsylvania, United States, a suburb of Philadelphia, after his parents, both of whom are physicians, emigrated to the United States. He attended a private Episcopalian school in Philadelphia, and then he attended New York University's prestigious Tisch School of the Arts. While at NYU, he contrived his new middle name, "Night."

In 1993, Shyamalan married his wife, Bhavna. They have two daughters.

His Films

His first film, a semi-autobiographical drama called Praying with Anger, was screened at the Toronto Film Festival in 1992. Shyamalan filmed Praying with Anger in Chennai (Madras). It is his only film to be shot outside of Pennsylvania. Praying with Anger was never distributed.

In 1998, Shyamalan wrote and directed Wide Awake, the story of a boy grieving for his dead grandfather. The film featured Rosie O'Donnell and Camryn Manheim, but it was a commercial failure.

In 1998, Shyamalan also wrote the screenplay for Stuart Little.

The Sixth Sense

Shyamalan achieved his breakout hit in 1999 with The Sixth Sense. The book DisneyWar contains an account of the business dealings behind The Sixth Sense: David Vogel of The Walt Disney Company read Shyamalan's spec script and instantly loved it. Without obtaining approval from his boss, Vogel bought the rights to the script, despite the high price of USD$2 million and the stipulation that Shyamalan could direct the film. Disney later stripped Vogel of the title of President of Walt Disney Pictures, and Vogel left the company. Walt Disney Pictures, apparently in a show of little confidence in the film, sold the profits to Spyglass Entertainment, and kept only a 12.5 percent distribution fee for itself.

The film had a $55 million budget, and it went on to earn over $600 million at box offices worldwide. It is one of the twenty-five most commercially successful films of all time.

The Sixth Sense went on to garner six Academy Award nominations, including Best Supporting Actor for Haley Joel Osment, Best Supporting Actress for Toni Collette, Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Original Screenplay.

Unbreakable

Shyamalan followed up The Sixth Sense with Unbreakable, which he also wrote and directed. The film allowed him to re-team with Bruce Willis, and it also starred Samuel L. Jackson. Unlike The Sixth Sense, this film received a mix reaction from moviegoers. The film was budgeted at $75 million and grossed $95 million domestically and $248 million worldwide. Despite the mixed reviews, Unbreakable turned out to be a solid profit for Buena Vista. However, Shyamalan still considers the film a failure, blaming its early release and its lack of emotion.

Signs

Disappointed with Unbreakable, Shyamalan was eager to follow up with Signs in. Opening in August 2002, Signs starred Mel Gibson and Joaqiun Phoenix. Unlike Unbreakable, Signs was well received by the American public. Budgeted at $72 million, Signs grossed a robust $227 million domestically and $408 million worldwide. Signs is the highest grossing film of Mel Gibson's acting career. Signs also achieved the highest opening weekend gross of Mel Gibson's acting career with a gross of $60 million.

Style

Hallmarks of Shyamalan's films include final-act plot twists, depictions of ordinary people encountering and dealing with the paranormal or extraordinary, as well as cameo appearances by Shyamalan himself in each of the films. His movies are also noted for the sharp screenplays, their effective, often subtle musical scores from composer James Newton Howard and highly tense and suspenseful sequences. The movie The Sixth Sense, which tells about a boy's interaction with spirits, hardly used computer animation or a loud background score. On each of Shyamalan's DVDs is also a short home movie made when he was a youngster, which are often as humorous as they are intriguing.

Biographical "documentary" on the Sci Fi Channel

A dramatic mockumentary entitled The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan, aired on the Sci Fi Channel, claimed that Shyamalan was legally dead for nearly a half hour while drowned in a frozen pond in a childhood accident, and that upon being rescued he has had experiences of communicating with spirits. The Sci Fi Channel also claimed that Shyamalan had grown angry when he had discovered that the documentary would reveal certain personal secrets, and had therefore withdrawn from participating. The Sci Fi Channel later admitted that both the "documentary" itself and Shyamalan's objections to it were part of a guerrilla marketing hoax, perpetrated with Shyamalan's direct artistic participation, to generate pre-release publicity buzz for The Village.

Recent work

Shyamalan is working on a new project called Lady in the Water which will be shot in Pennsylvania. Shyamalan also wrote the screenplay for an adaptation of Life of Pi, which is to be directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

Shyamalan is producing yet an untitled (rumored : “Indigo”) Movie slated for 2008 release about an indigo child who creates unexplained Alien worlds; only the paintings are not what they seem (twist ending). M. Night Shyamalan is working with Riven Phoenix who the project is purportedly based on.

Year	Movie	Position	Cameo
2006	Lady in the Water (in post-production)	Writer, director & producer	Unknown at this point
2004	The Village	Writer, director & producer	Guard ("Jay")
2002	Signs	Writer, director & producer	Ray Reddy
2000	Unbreakable	Writer, director & producer	Stadium drug dealer
1999	The Sixth Sense	Writer & director	Dr. Hill
1998	Wide Awake	Writer & director	N/A
1992	Praying with Anger	Writer, director & producer	Dev Raman

An American Express commercial directed by as well as starring M. Night Shyamalan had its TV debut during the 2006 Oscars. The commercial, part of the American Express My Life, My Card campaign, is available online at http://www.mylifemycard.com/mylifemycard.html

See also

• List of noted film producer and composer collaborations

External links

• M. Night Shyamalan
• M. Night Shyamalan Fansite - Community Forums, Thousands of Pictures
• M. Night Shyamalan at IMDb
• Sci-Fi Channel Admits Hoax
• M. Night Shyamalan Timeline