Ask any knowledgeable movie fan over the age of fifteen about Avatar, and theyll hardly be able to control themselves as they geek out over James Camerons 2009 comeback movie. Talk to anybody too young to have seen Titanic in the theaters, however, and that same word will summon a very different potential blockbuster.
I wrote the first [movie], which Im just finishing and polishing up thats what I was doing this morning, grinned M. Night Shyamalan this week when we caught up with him to talk about The Last Airbender, his upcoming film based on the hugely-successful Nickelodeon series Avatar: The Last Airbender.
While making a film for a younger audience is a big change for the man behind such thrillers as The Sixth Sense and The Happening, he told us that the gig is a great chance to stretch some new muscles. Whats great about doing something like that is that lets say your instinct is to distill me down into three characteristics: thrillers, scary, twist. Lets just say, Oh, thats what he does, Shyamalan explained. Then when they come see Last Airbender which has none of those three things in there - and yet, youll be able to tell in 30 seconds that I directed it. Now youll have to go, Wait, I realize there are other things that define him. [Things] I knew, but was never really acknowledging them on the same level as these other characteristics.
According to the Indian-born, Philly-raised writer/director, his Avatar is far from kids stuff; in fact, theres plenty of adult themes to capture the attention of fans of all ages.
The spirituality, the centering on relationships and family, on inherent optimism. Things like that, youll see, he explained of the series, which tells the story of Aang, a 112-year-old monk who appears to be 12 years old, and can control the elements. It seems like an odd fit [for me], but when you see the movie, literally, its full of Buddhist philosophy, it has all this stuff. All the elemental stuff that really lends itself to
almost a Hindu kind of connotations; theres a lot of Hinduism in it. So suddenly youll see those kind of things in the [future] movies, and I think itll reflect really well and make the relationship more accurate and more complex, which will be a great thing.
And yes, you read that last quote correctly. Although Shyamalan has held off on re-visiting hits like Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, he is eager to break into the sequel business with future Avatar flicks.
Im supposed to write the second one this Fall when were prepping, he said, noting that the first Avatar will hit theaters in July 2010. I dont want it to feel like Oh, the first one made a lot of money, lets make another one. Its not that at all. This is a story told over three movies. A very clear, Shakespearean story thats told over three movies. And for me, thats when a franchise works the best, like The Lord of the Rings. Its when its all plotted out in advance [that sequels work], and this is the clarity of what were doing.
