Even though his name now draws laughter and/or boos from audiences, the bottom line is, M. Night Shyamalan still makes studios big cash (“The Last Airbender” has raked in $250 million worldwide and counting) and he doesn’t need to fear about being unemployed any time soon. In fact, earlier this year, the director started his own production shingle a little while back called Night Chronicles which is akin to Sam Raimi’s Ghost House and will allow the filmmaker to bring his ideas to the big screen.
The first project under that shingle if the forthcoming demon-in-an-elevator horror film “Devil,” with “Twelve Strangers,” a tale about a jury deliberating a supernatural case, in the pipeline (more on that in a second). But the one that will undoubtedly draw the most attention will be the third Night Chronicles movie which according to M. Night Shyamalan lifted a villain and the whole plot of “Unbreakable 2.”
Speaking with MTV, Shyamalan revealed, “I cannibalized the idea for the sequel to ‘Unbreakable’ for one of the ‘Night Chronicles.'”
He goes on to add that he took a villain originally in an early draft of “Unbreakable” and planned for “Unbreakable 2” and used it in the forthcoming untitled Night Chronicles film. “It was such a cool idea for a villain, and it was actually originally in the script for ‘Unbreakable,’ and it was too much. There were too many villains, so I pulled this villain out and was like, ‘I’ll make this the second flick.'”
“I fleshed it out more and more, and thought, ‘This could be a standalone movie,'” he said. “I’ll just say it: the third ‘Night Chronicles’ movie is what would have been the sequel [to ‘Unbreakable’]. So now I need to come up with a new idea.”
So, for all the fanboys (and Bruce Willis) hoping to for a sequel, you might have to wait for Shyamalan to come up with a fresh concept.
No word yet on when that third Night Chronicles might come, but “Twelve Strangers” may have found its director in Daniel Stamm (“The Last Exorcism”). Speaking with HeyUGuys at a junket in London, he cagily revealed “My next project is a supernatural thriller and it’s not going to be shot in documentary style….One of my favorite filmmakers in the world, who’s a legend, is producing it….an idea of his that another writer is writing and I’m going to direct. It has a twist in the ending, without giving away who it is.”
Stamm asked junket attendees to take a guess as to which director they think it might be and after hearing suggestions like Ridley Scott, Christopher Nolan, M. Night Shyamalan and David Lynch (yeah, longshot guess there) Stamm confirmed that one of them was correct. And really, Shyamalan seems to make the most sense.
Anyhow, the first result of Night Chronicles, “Devil,” opens on September 17th.
