Shyamalan Addresses Avatar

IGN Movies has caught a sneak peek of the upcoming DVD release for Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Complete Book 2 Collection. On one of the special features, our favorite director, M. Night Shyamalan has a conversation with the show’s creators, Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, about bringing the animated series to life.  The bonus feature is called “Interview with Creators and M. Night Shyamalan.”

Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Complete Book 1 “I really was looking for something to do where I could do these cool fighting scenes and everything,” Shyamalan explains. “Avatar had such a beautiful way of doing that. The supernatural, with all of the elements — that’s another huge thing for me and it’s kind of based in all of this eastern stuff; it’s really beautiful ideas behind it.”

On locations: “When you guys write a scene that [takes place] in the North Pole, you can do that. But we’ve got to be in Arctic weather for months on end.

On condensing the story: It’s going to be really hard for me because I really loved what you guys did and I’m finding it hard to let go of anything. At first when I put the outline together, I showed it to you guys and it basically had every single thing you guys wrote.”

On breaking the story down into three films: “I think I’ve got to a place where I really know how to bring in the characters, and what characters I can save for the other movies, and what moments we can save for the other movies,” Shyamalan says. “So it’s really starting to take shape into a two-hour movie — and I think that will happen for each of the three movies.”

On the Cast: “I think they’re going to be mostly unknown kids and teenagers.”

On collaboration with other writers: “The really cool thing for me is that I close my door and I write my movies and it’s just the most lonely, depressing process that anyone could go through. On this movie, I’ve got you guys to be depressed with me, so this is such an exciting thing for me.”

7 Comments

  1. I've never been totally thrilled about this project, but the more I hear about it, the more excited I become. I think this trilogy is going to be huge for Night.

  2. Spike, what you seen the tv series? It's amazing. :tongue:
    If they can pull off the FX, and child-actors it will be a huge step forward for Night.

    It's not going to be easy though. :wassat:

  3. I can't say I've seen the TV series, but I plan on watching them (from the start) closer to the release of Nights movie! 😀

  4. I agree with the good doc – it's going to be difficult to do well, but I think this series is going to allow M. Night to show the world how talented a director he is. Hopefully, the amount of support that is already in place with this franchise will allow M. Night to make all three movies in a shorter time period than his standard 1 film / 2 years timetable.

  5. Unknown kids and teenagers? I wish they'd specify. Have they no idea what fans would do to get a part in the movies? I know I'd do anything to be Suki. Haha!

    I'm really looking forward to this, though! I know it'll be an immediate hit!

  6. IM SO EXCITED!!! I am 25 years old and I have been following avatar for the last few years watching it with my daughter. She just turned 8 and loves avatar. I love that she likes watching a cartoon like avatar instead of bratz or all these girly cartoons that just teaches young girls how to dress and act like prostitutes. I have bought her all the dvd's and I cant wait to take her to see the movies!!! The show is very interesting once you watch it for a while. You learn all the characters and their personalities. My boyfriend also got hooked on this series just from watching it with my and daughter and I . He and I were on vacation at the smokies without my daughter and we came across the release of the latest in the series that we hadnt bought yet at the time. We hesitated for a minute and asked “should we get it?” I looked at him and he looked at me and he said “yeah we will get it for ____ even though she wasnt with us. We watched it when we got back to the cabin and felt guilty that we didnt wait to watch it with her…haha. I'm sure the 3 of us will be the first in line at the theater to see these movies!

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