Running out of ideas?
WARNING: Spoiler Alert. If you have not seen M. Night Shyamalan's "The Village," but intend to, then please don't read this, yet.
I must admit, I am a fan of M. Night Shyamalan's. He is a modern-day Hitchcock, at least as far as I am concerned. I was completely blown away by "The Sixth Sense," never seeing the twist that was coming. I admired the simplicity and subtleness of "Unbreakable." I found "Signs" to be a thrilling psychological ride. Likewise, "The Village" kept me glued to the screen. What a concept! "This man is a genius!" I argued with Rob, who thinks he is "over-rated." Well, my world has just been rocked.
Hannah and Eva are both reading a book for school right now called Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix. Over dinner one night, we were talking about their new book and asking what it was about. The synposis goes something like this:
A young girl finds out that her family has been living a lie. The year is not 1840 but 1996. Their whole community is actually living in the past for the tourists who visit their town. The main character is then sent out into the modern world to get medicine for the many childern who are now near death. But she must never reveal her community's secret. Oh, and did I mention that all of the children believe the surrounding woods are haunted?
I was immediately overcome with a sense of deja-vu. Hold on, what is this book about? Then, Hannah said to me, "It's kinda like The Village." Wait a second here. It can't be like "The Village." That was all M. Night Shyamalan's idea. He dreamed it up. He wanted to do a love story, a sort of Wuthering Heights for a new generation. Then he thought of mixing things up a little, adding the year twist and throwing in the possibilty of monsters. (Okay, Running Out of Time doesn't appear to have any monsters in it...at least, not yet.)
This revelation has unsettled me. He was one of my "Hollywood heroes," a ground-breaking master of the cinema! M. Night Shyamalan has children. Did one of them read this story and does that explain how he got the idea? Is this just purely coincidental? Has anyone else noticed the striking similarities? Why I am so riveted?
I don't know what to think of Mr. M. Night now. I guess that until I meet him in person, I will never have the answers to my questions. But I will be looking into his future endeavors a bit more critically from now on. : (
I must admit, I am a fan of M. Night Shyamalan's. He is a modern-day Hitchcock, at least as far as I am concerned. I was completely blown away by "The Sixth Sense," never seeing the twist that was coming. I admired the simplicity and subtleness of "Unbreakable." I found "Signs" to be a thrilling psychological ride. Likewise, "The Village" kept me glued to the screen. What a concept! "This man is a genius!" I argued with Rob, who thinks he is "over-rated." Well, my world has just been rocked.
Hannah and Eva are both reading a book for school right now called Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix. Over dinner one night, we were talking about their new book and asking what it was about. The synposis goes something like this:
A young girl finds out that her family has been living a lie. The year is not 1840 but 1996. Their whole community is actually living in the past for the tourists who visit their town. The main character is then sent out into the modern world to get medicine for the many childern who are now near death. But she must never reveal her community's secret. Oh, and did I mention that all of the children believe the surrounding woods are haunted?
I was immediately overcome with a sense of deja-vu. Hold on, what is this book about? Then, Hannah said to me, "It's kinda like The Village." Wait a second here. It can't be like "The Village." That was all M. Night Shyamalan's idea. He dreamed it up. He wanted to do a love story, a sort of Wuthering Heights for a new generation. Then he thought of mixing things up a little, adding the year twist and throwing in the possibilty of monsters. (Okay, Running Out of Time doesn't appear to have any monsters in it...at least, not yet.)
This revelation has unsettled me. He was one of my "Hollywood heroes," a ground-breaking master of the cinema! M. Night Shyamalan has children. Did one of them read this story and does that explain how he got the idea? Is this just purely coincidental? Has anyone else noticed the striking similarities? Why I am so riveted?
I don't know what to think of Mr. M. Night now. I guess that until I meet him in person, I will never have the answers to my questions. But I will be looking into his future endeavors a bit more critically from now on. : (
1 Comments:
This came as no surprise to me. I know that M. Night stole another movie idea from a book called "The Sense After The Fifth Sense." It was about a kid who sees dead people. Down with Shyamalamadingdong!
Post a Comment
<< Home