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Despite a formidable duo (Bruce Willis and Samuel L Jackson) playing the main roles, the early reviews of Unbreakable betray some disappointment, one of them saying that the film cannot hold a candle to The Sixth Sense. But that only means that much has come to be expected of the 30-year-old Shyamalan, that he has come to be regarded as a film-maker of substance. Such expectations are largely an offshoot of The Sixth Sense, an emotional ghost story that is all about fear. The main character of that film is a sensitive eight-year-old boy who feels that something is lurking around in his home when he is alone. The boy's single-parent mother is bewildered and exasperated by the stories he tells her. The help the boy wants comes from a dedicated child psychologist. The latter gradually persuades the boy to reveal what he has long kept to himself: that he sees dead people and that they frighten and hurt him. The film, peppered with visions of dead women, has a surprise ending. Willis flipped The Sixth Sense has been making news ever since Disney Pictures bought the script for a fancy $ 2.25 million. In all Shyamalan has earned about $ 3 million, including director's fees, from the film. Bruce Willis, best known for playing macho roles like the ones he handled in Armageddon and the Die Hard series, was happy to play the sensitive role of the child psychologist. According to the September 20, 1999 issue of India Today, he slashed his fees because "there have been only three scripts…I have ever read…that I immediately knew I wanted to do, and The Sixth Sense was one of them." Released in the US on August 6, 1999, The Sixth Sense has earned umpteen rave reviews. It has grossed about $ 300 million so far and bids fair to make it to the list of the ten top grossers in the history of American cinema. Best-paid scriptwriter
That was one of the high points of a professional film-making career that began spectacularly enough. In 1992 the American Film Institute named Praying with Anger, a warm, sentimental drama about an America-born Indian's discovery of his roots that Shyamalan wrote, directed and produced, the Debut Film of the Year. The next film the ethnic Indian scripted and directed was Wide Awake - a coming-of-age story featuring an adventurous 10-year-old boy - which was released in.1998. It bombed at the box office. The screenplay of Stuart Little, an engaging film featuring a very 'human' mouse that was released in 1999, was written by Shyamalan; and 20th Century Fox bought Labour of Love, a screenplay he wrote in 1994. Steven Spielberg is Shyamalan's role model, and that film-maker's Raiders of the Lost Ark, which has Indiana Jones as the main character, among his all-time favourites. So Shyamalan must have been thrilled when Spielberg and George Lucas approached him to write the screenplay for the fourth film of the Indiana Jones series. According to reports negotiations have been going on between Spielberg and Shyamalan. Click here for 'A phenomenon named Shyamalan.' R Padmanabhan |
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'Unbreakable,' a film scripted and directed by Manoj Night Shyamalan of 'The Sixth Sense' fame, was released in the United States on November 22, 2000. A horror-filled supernatural thriller like The Sixth Sense, it is about the amazing self-discovery to which a security guard is led by his quest to understand his true nature after a devastating train wreck leaves him totally unhurt and a mysterious stranger appears and predicts a remarkable future for him.
Presumably influenced by its success, Disney Productions signed an agreement with Shyamalan for the purchase of the Unbreakable script for $ 5 million. The deal committed the company to paying him another $ 5 million for directing the film. It made
Shyamalan, who is of Indian origin, the best-paid Hollywood screenplay writer and one of the best-paid directors.