Without a question, Shyamalan’s ‘Signs’ is one of my all time favorite alien films. And also one of my all time favorite horror films. This film scared the day lights out of me. And it still does scare me no matter how many time I watch this film. It’s one of Shyamalan’s best films in my opinion. The scene that I never forget is when the alien steps out from behind the bushes in the alleyway. And, it still makes me to jump.

Anyways, the folks at Cinematical recently published an interesting article talking about the scenes from ‘Signs.’ I find it an interesting read, for the article explains Mr. Shyamalan’s directing technique. Masterfully deliberate pacing, and brilliant use of off-screen space. And there praising of the film that it is surely among the most frightening PG-13 horror movies of all time.

Jump to Cinematical to read the whole article. And, let us know what do you think of ‘Signs’ by leaving comments below.

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Halloween is getting closer and what film could be better to talk about than M.Night Shyamalan’s SIGNS. I have a little story to share and why I selected ‘Signs” as the scariest film of M.Night Shyamalan. Few years prior to film’s official release and to even know anything about film, I was always fascinated by Alien stories. The mystery behind the crop circles and alien abductions.

I used to sit for hours to read about aliens and possibility of life out in the space. I still think there is possibility of life somewhere out there. I always thought we are not alone. Afterall, who are we to be the only ones to get to live in this vast space. I had a very scary dream about aliens. In my dream, they came to take me with them and this is the first time I am sharing this in public and with other fans. The fear woke me up and I had to check myself literally to see if I was alright. The “fear” and the sixth sense, M.Night you are a genius. – Of course, I quit my research.

Signs is a story about a family living in a farm finds myserious crop circles in their fields which suggests something more frightening to come. Signs  garnered generally positive reviews from movie critics. Rotten tomatoes reported that 74% gave positive appraisals, based on 221 reviews. Rogert Ebert wrote: “M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Signs’ is the work of a born filmmaker, able to summon apprehension out of thin air. When it is over, we think not how little has been decided, but how much has been experienced … At the end of the film, I had to smile, recognizing how Shyamalan has essentially ditched a payoff. He knows, as we all sense, that payoffs have grown boring.”

Like all of Shyamalan’s work, Signs is not without its detractors, with variety’s Todd McCarthy writing: After the overwrought ‘Unbreakable’ and now the meager Signs, it’s fair to speculate whether Shyamalan’s persistence in replicating the otherworldly formula of ‘The Sixth Sense’ might not be a futile and self-defeating exercise.

Signs grossed $227,966,634 domestically, $180,281,283 internationally, and $408,247,917 worldwide at the box office, ranking only behind ‘The Sixth Sense’ in Shyamalan’s box office success and grossing more than The Village and Unbreakable combined.

Personally, Signs introduced me to my own fears. I had to turn the volume on to my stereo system after the movie was finished just to take my mind away from the movie.  And, I think Signs will remain in my list as the scariest film. I have seen the movie more than 10 times by now and each time I get that feeling and it never goes away. It’s like roller coaster ride. I like to feel my fears.

And, be sure to check out Hollywood News’ Scott Mandelson’s take on top 10 Scariest film from the last 20 years where he also selected Signs in that list of his as the scariest horror film.

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M.Night Shyamalan is known for spine-chilling thrillers with ghoulish final-frame twists like in The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and The Village. But director M Night Shyamalan says he loved getting the chance to be a big kid again when making his latest film ‘extravaganza’ The Last Airbender.

Based on a hit children’s TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender, the film in which the world is at war and its fate lies in the hand of one small boy. ‘I think each artist thinks of themselves at a certain period of their life and a little bit of me perceives me as a ten-year-old a lot,’ Shyamalan tells AAP from his home in the US.

‘You see it, even in my darker pieces – there’s always a perspective from that age group. Whether it’s Unbreakable when he sees his father in a certain way, obviously in The Sixth Sense and also in Signs which tells the kid’s point of view of what’s going on.

‘It’s always feathered in there. ‘The Last Airbender tells the story of a primitive world which is being threatened with extinction by the Fire Nation, who aims to annihilate the more peace-loving nations of Air, Water and Earth.

But then a ‘waterbender’, who is still learning to control her powers, discovers the long-lost Aang – not only the world’s last airbender, but an avatar sent to save the earth.

It was Shyamalan’s own children who introduced him to the captivating TV series which inspired the big-budget, CGI-assisted, 3D film. ‘Usually people are getting stabbed in all of my movies,’ Shyamalan laughs.

‘It was fun to make a movie that the whole family was a part of from beginning to end. ‘(My kids) were hanging out (on set) and they’re friends with the cast and when I come home, the cast is at my house – it was like that kind of atmosphere.

‘It was a very emotional, fun time – kind of being a kid and doing something for the family and families and thinking with a different part of my brain. It was a soul-enriching kind of thing.’ Wrapping the movie and saying goodbye to the young cast was a tough day, Shyamalan says.

‘It’s always emotional at the end of a movie, but that one in particular was hard,’ he says. Shyamalan is hoping to get the green light on a sequel to The Last Airbender, but he doesn’t think his darker film-making days are over. ‘As the kids grow older and become teenagers, I’ll start to make movies for them at that age, and soon they’ll be adults and we’ll be making only thrillers again,’ he laughs.

‘But it’s nice to make movies for your kids while you have kids.’  The director always had it in his mind to create an alternate world on film, but he acknowledges that in transforming the hit TV series for the big screens he is under a lot of pressure from hard-core fans to get it right.

‘They know the width of the arrow on the head and all that stuff,’ he says. But it was a story that should always have been told on a grand scale, he argues.

‘The ideas were so cinematic … it felt like it was almost too big for what it was before,’ he says.  Shyamalan says he had always considered CGI effects to be his ‘arch nemesis’, but he embraced them for this film and soon learned to love them.

‘I’m glad I don’t see it as an enemy anymore,’ he says.

‘I’m a technophobe a little bit. I think it’s just my old curmudgeon ways of not wanting to change, more than anything else.

‘But spending all this time working with CGI I’ve really come to love it as an art form … I think I’ve learned a new tool for the belt.’ Shyamalan, who describes himself as a ‘minimalist film maker’ doesn’t envisage a CGI-dominated movie like Transformers on his horizons.

‘I think when I go back to doing other movies I’ll be able to use it as a tool, but it will still have a minimal part of the story-telling process,’ he says.

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 Jackson Rathbone has said that there is more to M. Night Shyamalan’s work than plot turns and gimmicks. Rathbone also told Digital Spy that his Last Airbender director, whose early films The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable featured twist endings, was “amazing” to work with.
“People say he does twists in all his movies but where really was the twist in Signs?” he said. “It’s kind of hard to say that there’s a gimmick to his work, it’s not that, he tells a story so compelling that you’re on the edge of your seat all the way through the film.”

On Shyamalan’s approach to The Last Airbender, which is based on the popular Nickelodeon children’s TV show, Rathbone said: “What he was able to put into the live-action adaptation was a condensed version of the animated series. It was fun, it was amazing to get to work with a director of Night’s calibre, someone we’ve respected and admired for years now. We’re waiting for his next film to get out and see what he was going to do next.”

Do you agree or disagree with Jackson Rathbone?

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Kennedy and Marshall have had successful careers as producers, having produced blockbusters like the Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park film franchises. Also joining the team as Executive Producers will be Michael DiMartino & Bryan Konietzko, the creators of the popular TV series of which the film based.

“I was drawn to the series because of its influences: one being Hayao Miyazaki, said Shyamalan. “I’ve always been a huge fan of Miyazaki’s work. He is one of the greatest storytellers in the world and makes anime films in Japan. His combination of spirituality and super natural elements have brought depth and meaning to his art form. In The Last Airbender I see an opportunity to make a live-action version of a Miyazaki film.”

“We’re delighted to be partnering with Nickelodeon to bring M. Night Shyamalan’s vision of The Last Airbender to the big screen and to audiences of all ages,” said John Lesher, President, Paramount Film Group. “M. Night Shyamalan’s exciting vision for a film with the potential of The Last Airbender is another perfect fit for the Fourth of July holiday weekend that we have used to launch such blockbusters as War of the Worlds and Transformers, said Rob Moore, Vice Chairman, Paramount Pictures.

Based on the hugely successful Nickelodeon animated TV series, the live-action feature film is set in a world where human civilization is divided into four nations: Water, Earth, Air and Fire.The Fire Nation is waging a ruthless, oppressive war against the other three nations. The film’s hero, the reluctant young Aang, is the “Last Airbender” – the Avatar who, according to prophecy, has the ability to manipulate all of the elements and bring all the nations together. Aided by a protective teenage Waterbender named Katara and her bull-headed brother Sokka, Aang proceeds on a perilous journey to restore balance to their war-torn world.

M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender promises to be a summer movie for the ages, combining the imagination and visual canvas of the Lord of the Rings saga with the action and spectacle of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

[Source: Paramount]

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Disney will debut the Blu-ray version on June 3. Mirroring the standard-def DVD release, extras include the “Making Signs” featurette, deleted scenes, a multi-angle storyboard presentation, and an early M. Night Shyamalan short film. Tech specs include 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 video and uncompressed PCM 5.1 Surround audio.

Suggested retail for the Blu-ray has been set at $34.99.

[High-Def Digest]

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Grapevine time: executives at Disney’s Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group, a collection of Disney’s main movie studios, have been getting their subsidiary companies to prepare most of their hit motion pictures for digital delivery.

These are just some of the movies to expect within the first six months to a year.

From Walt Disney Pictures: James and the Giant Peach, Pocahontas, The Lion King, Aladdin, Chicken Little, Herbie: Fully Loaded, Sky High, Ice Princess, National Treasure, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

From Disney/Pixar: Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3 (?), A Bug’s Life, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars.

From Miramax: Cold Mountain, The Hours, Chicago, Cinderella Man, Scary Movie 1,2,3 and 4.

From Touchstone Pictures: The Royal Tenenbaums, Pearl Harbor, The Sixth Sense (with Hollywood Pictures), Unbreakable, Gone in Sixty Seconds, Shanghai Noon, Deuce Bigalow Male Gigolo, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, King Arthur, Hidalgo, Open Range, Signs, Reign of Fire.

Apart from Disney and Pixar, Lion’s Gate Entertainment will make the following, mostly horror, movies available: American Psycho, Dogma, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, Pi, Requiem for a Dream, Open Water, Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, The Punisher, Fahrenheit 9/11, Crash, Alone in the Dark, Hostel, Saw 1 and 2.

Not all of the above will be available for download immediately but instead see a slow roll out over the first six months during which they will be joined by ever newer releases. Pricing is expected to be from$9.99 to $14.99. In this writer’s opinion customers might find those prices too dear. Could a subscription model work better?

[iTunes]
[iPodHub]

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Jodie Foster and Patrick Swayze were among the first to offer their public support to Gibson, and now his Signs director is weighing in.

Shyamalan, who is in London for the British premiere of new movie Lady in the Water, says, “He’s very kind to everyone around him, he has never treated anybody badly. Who he is will always come out and he’s an inspiring, sweet guy, so eventually he’ll overcome all this.”

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