[ALF]

Hi guys, I would like to begin my first own section, hoping that someone could be interested about what the people say about the film in Spain, Maybe you're not interested, but I'll post here all the news about the film that I'll be able to take for you.
To begin, the newspaper today after an interview with Mark Whalberg says that the Film "could be a copy of Spielberg's War of the Worlds"
Well, I don't think so, what about you?

[Rohan]

Nice thread, but that newspaper is totally wrong. M.Night would never do that. He wrote it himself from his own brain. 

[ALF]

Thanks for answering Rohan, I hope you'll be interested in my next posts about news in Spain about Shyamalan and his films, it could be nice to see our point of view.
I agreee with you, don't think Shyamalan needs to copy anyone's ideas.

[Mr_Glass.1]

It's an interesting idea starting this thread.  I like it, even though I dissagree with the newspaper.  There aren't aliens in it, so how can there be any similarities to War of the Worlds.

[ALF]

Thanks Mr Glass,
I'll try to do this an interesting section.
We all desagree with the article.
In these days all the main streets of Madrid have the advertisement of the film, so I suppose in these days I'll have news to put in this section.

[ALF]

GREEN APOCALYPSE

This is the title I found today morning in a newspaper in the article about the film.

ADN (13/06/08): The director of Unbreakable (in Spain the film is called The Protected  ) thinks about the consequences about an echologic disaster.

The director has created a thriller about the unpredictible nature and the human vulnerability. The film remembers old B movies, and it's just the continue of what the director tried to tell us in his 2 last films before The Happening, with an echological point of view against the big cities and what they`re doing with the planet.
It's obvious that for Shyamalan Apocalypse is green.

[Mr_Glass.1]

That's interesting.  I guess I will have to wait to see the movie and decide whether it's warning us about our effect upon the planet, or full of global warming, tree hugging kind of stuff.

[Lifeordeath1]

I could def. see how it had the same feeling.

[Mr_Glass.1]

It's great actually, it's just warning us about our effect on the planet, and how we need to change some stuff.

[Lifeordeath1]

Did anyone else think the film felt like the movie "The Birds"?  I know MNight said something about the music sounding that way, but I really thought the movie itself felt that way.  Really creepy, soft quiet moments. 

[ALF]

7 QUESTIONS ABOUT THE FILM

The spanish Magazine Fotogramas, the oldest cinema spanish magazine, very respected, make an interview with Shyamalan and ask him to answer 7 questions about The Happening.

What is it about?
Shyamalan doesn't want to answer, he shows us the trailer and that's all we can know, the rest, we'll see it when we'll see the movie

Is the Nature the main character?
Shyamalan: I was driving one wonderful day, during the making off Lady in the Water, and I thought what could happen if the Nature decided to give us a lesson
In this movie you go out from Philadelphia to make the big part of the scenes, in the middle of the nature, was it difficult to work in the outside?
Shyamalan: It was difficult to work, always depending of the weather, like the charaters of the film, we felt controlled by the nature 
but finally we were lucky and the nature was on our side

Why so many hastes?
You took the scenes so fast, creating the atmosphere of urgent, running from here to there, like the characters of the film escape so fast from their cities. Maybe you wanted to create the same atmosphere of the story inside the members of the team.
Shyamalan: I didn't want the team and the actors to get used to any place, I want them to feel like in a survival game, to be more inside the story of this film.


Any Reference?
This film seems similar to Signs, or maybe The War of the Worlds.
Shyamalan: If i had some kind of reference, it was Invasion of Body Snatchers, the spirit of my film has something similar with that one. I love the atmosphere of that film and the idea that we are our worst enemies. I wanted the story to go fast in an only direction, to understand the fear and desperations of the characters.

Why NO to the special effects?
The director confess that he hast used special effects just to the movements of the wind.
Shyamalan: I wanted the film style to be like the old school, without super effects, I wanted a realistic movie

Why Wahlberg?
The director likes to move the actors from their typical characters. Now is the moment for Mark Wahlberg
Shyamalan: we are good friends, and although we usually see him on action movies, he has a sensible face, perfect for the character

Why a film for adults?
It surprises us that this movie has the R classification.
Shyamalan: Actually all my scrypts have that classification at the beginning, but I cut some scenes to have a more open classification. This time was FOX who push me to let the film like it was, in order to develope its terrorific side, and I was happy for the idea.


As I told you, I'll try to bring in this section articles, comments and things about how in Spain the experts and the general public see Shyamalan and his films.

[ALF]

The Happening steals Indy's Throne

After 4 weeks, last Indy's movie down to the second position of the most seen movies in Spain. And the responsible of this is last M.Night Shyamalan's movie, The Happening (El Incidente  ). The film has received 2.161.800 ? in his first weekend

So  The Happening was welcome for the spanish public 

[Namaste]

-*SPOILERS*-









Shyamalan says the happening is not like war of the worlds or signs, but dont forget he has said before that signs was inspired by invasion of the body snatchers too. Also i have heard a lot of people say that The Happening strongly alludes to war of the worlds (especially the latest version), and I am starting to agree. The whole thing about being on the road, multiple "attack" sites apocalyptic atmosphere, carrying along a little girl he barely knows, meeting all kinds of terrified people and hearing their speeches, the self-contained house in the middle of nowhere, the abrupt ending of the danger of the event, and the list goes on.