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M. Night Shymalan's New Sci-Film (Written By GARY WHITTA)

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I'm sorry ahead of time.

gwmns.jpg
 

Dyno

Member
Seven pages and no Gary. Maybe you fine people shouldn't be busting Whitta's chops too much. Everyone needs to draw a paycheque and this is another big credit on his C.V. You got to pay your dues before you can write your own ticket and this is still a really big deal even though M. Knight's career is on a most extreme vector.

Maybe Gary's writing will be SO GOOD that it turns M. Knight around. Wouldn't that be something? Let's hope.
 

DrEvil

not a medical professional
I have a feeling Gary did this for the moneyhats. There's no way his integrity has been compromised so much that he'd be willingly writing for a Shamalamadingdong movie.
 

dave is ok

aztek is ok
It's not like as a screenwriter you have any control over how your script gets made (if you're lucky enough to have it made at all). If some big names attach themselves to something you wrote, the studio will spend the money to get it done. It's really hard to get a bad movie made, let alone a good one.

But yeah, Shymalan keeps getting worse and worse.
 

Double D

Member
There have been shitty movies with good writing, right? I don't really pay attention to how all this stuff works, but I have to imagine that Hollywood people can pick out the good and bad parts when selecting who to work on their projects. And in any case, which one of you dumbasses would turn down an offer to write a Hollywood movie, even if attached to Shyamalan?
 
Entertainment Weekly's take:

Yes, hoping for M. Night Shyamalan to make another good movie is like hoping for the Pittsburgh Pirates to win the World Series: I wouldn’t exactly put money on it. But isn’t it more interesting to root for the underdog who needs all the encouragement they can get, over the Scorseses and the Yankees of the world? Even if that underdog has soiled the carpet more times than you can count with steaming, tightly coiled piles of Airbender?

In my mind, Shyamalan is a great director who, for some reason, keeps choosing to work with the same terrible writer, also named M. Night Shyamalan. Why he continues to give himself work is beyond me, but like a philosophy major at a job fair, I’m somehow still holding out hope. And who knows, his next project could actually be good, right? RIGHT?! It’s called One Thousand A. E. and, according to The Hollywood Reporter, it will be written by someone else! Admittedly that someone else is Gary Whitta, who penned the somewhat unfortunate The Book of Eli, but still — the news holds a ray of sunshine: Maybe, just maybe, Shyamalan is learning to work with others. Perhaps the plummeting critical reactions finally got to him. I mean, if the Metacritic numbers for his last four movies — 44, 36, 34, 20 — were test scores, the guidance counselor would be asking him if everything was okay at the Shyamalan household.
 

AVclub

Junior Member
I say good for Mr. Whitta. It's an opportunity to shine. So why not take it? Even if the director screws it up, the story could still be solid and possibly lead to more work.

I'm currently going through a similar situation where I wrote the script for a short film that's not turning out at all how I pictured it. Although it isn't pleasant, the opportunity to put your work out there is still appreciated and necessary.

I wasn't crazy about "Book of Eli" but thought it was pretty entertaining. On that basis alone, I'd watch this new movie.
 
Interfectum said:
"Sorry Gary"??? :lol :lol :lol

He's writing a script for a major Hollywood director. I think he'll be okay.

This. You can count the number of screenwriters getting regular work on major motion pictures on one hand. I swear Orci and Kurtzman wrote 75% of the major releases in the last three years. Many screenwriters eke out livings selling scripts that never even get produced, so getting an original script turned into a fucking Denzel Washington vehicle is like winning the lottery.

The fact that Whitta has one produced script and two others with major names attached means he's starting to become a go-to screenwriter. He's doing really well. I hated the last, I don't know, five movies M. Night had anything to do with, and I've never seen Book Of Eli, but questioning whether this is a good career choice is patently absurd.

TL;DR: Whitta. He's so hot right now.
 
Joe Shlabotnik said:
This. You can count the number of screenwriters getting regular work on major motion pictures on one hand. I swear Orci and Kurtzman wrote 75% of the major releases in the last three years. Many screenwriters eke out livings selling scripts that never even get produced, so getting an original script turned into a fucking Denzel Washington vehicle is like winning the lottery.

The fact that Whitta has one produced script and two others with major names attached means he's starting to become a go-to screenwriter. He's doing really well. I hated the last, I don't know, five movies M. Night had anything to do with, and I've never seen Book Of Eli, but questioning whether this is a good career choice is patently absurd.

TL;DR: Whitta. He's so hot right now.
:lol
 

StuBurns

Banned
I don't think anyone would begrudge Whitta making cash, and I'm sure he is, it's kind of the Ricky Gervais thing though, would you rather sit in obscurity making ends meet until you had the chance to do something great, or would you rather whore yourself out at the first opportunity? There is nothing morally questionable either way, the latter is just a lot less cool.

I thought Eli was terrible, but presumably Whitta didn't, maybe he likes MNS's films too. This could be very good news for him. Not everyone thinks Spike Jonze is a better director than Michael Bay. I think the chances are if Whitta liked Eli, he likes MNS's films, their failings are oddly parallel.
 
StuBurns said:
I don't think anyone would begrudge Whitta making cash, and I'm sure he is, it's kind of the Ricky Gervais thing though, would you rather sit in obscurity making ends meet until you had the chance to do something great, or would you rather whore yourself out at the first opportunity? There is nothing morally questionable either way, the latter is just a lot less cool.

I thought Eli was terrible, but presumably Whitta didn't, maybe he likes MNS's films too. This could be very good news for him. Not everyone thinks Spike Jonze is a better director than Michael Bay. I think the chances are if Whitta liked Eli, he likes MNS's films, their failings are oddly parallel.
woa woa woa what? gervais has made three amazing things - the office uk, extras and the podcasts. plus he discovered karl pilkington. where is this whoring out you speak of - other than 2 average movies?
 

StuBurns

Banned
DevelopmentArrested said:
woa woa woa what? gervais has made three amazing things - the office uk, extras and the podcasts. plus he discovered karl pilkington. where is this whoring out you speak of - other than 2 average movies?
No, Gervais is the other example, the waiting in obscurity, in an office in fact, until he got to do what he wanted. He has said he was happy to do nothing but that forever if he didn't get to go into TV in the manner he wanted.
 
A match made in heaven!

The Book of Eli : Visually entertaining comic book stuff, preposterous and pretentious, with a twist ending that's at once completely ridiculous and superfluous.

Every movie Shyamalan has made since Unbreakable : SAME THING.
Not ice, but Cthulhu cold.
 

Fersis

It is illegal to Tag Fish in Tag Fishing Sanctuaries by law 38.36 of the GAF Wildlife Act
The only way to save this movie is to kill Jaden Smith character in the first 5 minutes.
 

Yaweee

Member
Dyno said:
Seven pages and no Gary. Maybe you fine people shouldn't be busting Whitta's chops too much. Everyone needs to draw a paycheque and this is another big credit on his C.V. You got to pay your dues before you can write your own ticket and this is still a really big deal even though M. Knight's career is on a most extreme vector.

Maybe Gary's writing will be SO GOOD that it turns M. Knight around. Wouldn't that be something? Let's hope.

Sorry, that is all I can see in the post.

Speevy said:
He's already dead...and blind.

... and mute.
 
We sort of know nothing about the movie except "Whitta, Shymalan and Smith" but GAF totally pans it already and fucks poor Gary with a broken bottle, OH LAWD :lol
 

YakiSOBA

Member
I was about to jump onto the whitta train, then I read Jayden Smith and ate my book of eli poster instead in silent protest.
 
Vincent Alexander said:
I just re-watched The Sixth Sense the other day (haven't seen it since theaters). I figured knowing the twist, I wouldn't enjoy it. Fuck me, that movie still is amazing. Well-written, great directing, great acting....Oddly enough, I've never seen anything else he has done. From people's comments though, it seems like I need to see Signs and never see Airbender?
You know what was the most amazing aspect of Signs? The Hess family. Signs should be looked as a story of a rural Pennsylvania family that is going through tragedy. The scene where Mel Gibson and his brother played by Phoenix share a heart to heart moment about faith is so wonderfully directed, that any lesser director would have shitted it up bad. Similarly, Sixth Sense is about the relationship between a psychiatrist and a troubled boy, and the boy's mom. Unbreakable is simply an all-round great flick. If you leave out the supernatural aspects from the movies, they're genuinely good drama. And this is where M. Night's strength lies: the human aspect. Whenever he builds rich relationships between characters, and makes fully realized characters who feel truly genuine, he has a winner on his hands. But whenever he focuses too much on supernatural aspect, he loses. 6th Sense, Signs and Unbreakable focused on human aspect much more than the supernatural. The Village was split 50-50. The rest were all fantasy SyFy channel, miscast crapfests.

If M. Night goes back to his strength, which is human drama, he will pull through. If he focuses on fantasy stuff more, he loses. Gary Whitta, if you're reading this, you were probably aware of what I said. Just make sure Sham doesn't go crazy with sci-fi stuff.
 

NYR

Member
Anerythristic said:
We sort of know nothing about the movie except "Whitta, Shymalan and Smith" but GAF totally pans it already and fucks poor Gary with a broken bottle, OH LAWD :lol
Too bad we don't have a history of bad movies to base our presumptions on...oh wai...
 
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