Throw Down the Guantlet!

You know what I would do if I were Shyamalan? Throw down the guantlet. He's taken a lot of flack for his movies, and he should tell Hollywood to bring it. If I were him, I would find a production company (MTV) willing to pay 11 million dollars for a project. He would write an ambiguous script about two characters in a scary, unfamiliar situation. Then he would challenge 9 other directors to make a movie (no longer then 15 minutes) using the same dialogue, with a budget of 1 million dollars. The only rules would be that (a) the director had to be in it, (b) It shouldn't be rated R- just to keep it tasteful (c) no additional money can be used for it and (d) No CGI. They would put the movie together and show it, and then let people vote for the best version. Whichever director won would get an additional 1 million dollars. But if Night won, then all the other directors would have to pony up 100,000 dollars each and give it to him. They would invite young directors: Chris Nolan, JJ Abrams, Brett Ratner, Rob Rodriquez, etc., and then challenge guys like Spielberg to step up for it. A director's duel. If MTV got involved they could pitch it as a Director's Unplugged kind of deal. This would work. How can we get him to do this?

The reality is people who like his movie will watch his movies. People (cattle) that listen to critics to decide what to watch will most likely not go see them. He can do two things; make original movies he wants to make and maybe face having to make them out of pocket (which means smaller production) or he can adapt commercially successful franchises like the Avatar thing. Or he can do both. I haven’t seen the Happening, but up to Lady in the Water I am in the opinion he was getting better with every film. Avatar is a whole new direction. A commercial direction. But that can be fun too, and he has the film craft skills.

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R.I.P.

Or perhaps even the gauntlet...