comment #1

Hash says ...

Gay.

comment #2

Unison says ...

Totally gay.

comment #3

actionman says ...

that's mature.

Sounds like a cool idea for an R-rated thriller. I hated Lady in the Water but have enjoyed all of M. Night's other films so I'm looking forward to this.

Nice poster...creepy.

comment #4

tophertilson says ...

THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW was so ludicrous it set back the cause of global warming five years. This one ought to have Republicans torching what's left of the rainforest just for giggles.

comment #5

DavidF says ...

Sounds like The Stand and about 20 other post-apocolyptic tales.

Shyamalan is a talented guy, I'm pretty sure, but it's time to try something different.

SIXTH SENSE-Good, if overhyped.

UNBREAKABLE-Underrated and overhyped. Of all his films, the most likely to actually GAIN in standing.

SIGNS-Not bad. But the aliens who didn't know our planet is mostly water are at least as dumb as the aliens in War of the Worlds. It's called research, folks.

VILLAGE-Some good stuff but getting real tired, real fast. When people are watching the trailer and trying to guess what the twist is, you've worn out your welcome. (I guessed right).

LADY IN THE WATER - Didn't see it.

THE HAPPENING - seems like more of the same.

comment #6

PerfectTommy says ...

"We've sensed it.
We've seen the signs.
Now it's happening."

I hope later posters read;

"It takes a village.
We've watered it.
Now it's happening."

Oh well. I did love "Sixth Sense", "Unbreakable" and "Signs", so I do hope M. Night is back on track.

comment #7

berkguru says ...

Shamalan needs to go away - dude is a hack. Total rip off of so many other stories out there. And it wont be Rated R I promise you

comment #8

Joe Leydon says ...

But I still want to know: Will they use the Diana Ross and the Supremes song?

comment #9

T. S. Idiot says ...

"Will they use the Diana Ross and the Supremes song?"

What about cameos for Faye Dunaway, Michael Parks, George Maharis, and the immortal Luke Askew?

comment #10

Rich S. says ...

I wonder if this will beat the adaptation of The Ruins into the theaters. I don't want to spoil anything, but those who have read The Ruins will know why.

comment #11

Crow T Robot says ...

Shyamalan needs to get hungry again. Someone needs to take away his big house, his cool car and his hot wife. CAA or whoever needs to drop him. He needs to feel the pangs of creative failure and start over from scratch. The guy is clearly in Ego Land. He's lost all connection to the spirit that made The Sixth Sense so great.

comment #12

Gabriel says ...

"It takes a village.
We've watered it.
Now it's happening."

HA HA HA

Personally, I'm rooting for Radiohead's "How To Disappear Completely" to be used here somehow.

comment #13

lesterg says ...

I don't think I could have hated this script more.

If Night's name weren't on the cover, you'd swear someone like Dean Devlin was responsible. It's that moronic, corny and painful.

comment #14

giantman says ...

"The Happening" is a horrible title, makes it sound like a group of ex-sixties-hippies are getting together to wipe out mankind, or something. Good grief.

comment #15

Craig Kennedy says ...

In the immortal words of Roger Ebert: "This is my happening and it freaks me out."

comment #16

Josh Massey says ...

Rich: That's what I thought of as well. And no, The Ruins will beat it into theaters by two months.

comment #17

Mr. Gittes says ...

So now the post - Oscar era for Wahlberg begins...

comment #18

Geoff says ...

I like THE GREEN EFFECT better.

Rich S.-

I know what you're saying about THE RUINS, but I'm worried about that adaptation in general. What a ridiculously hard screenplay that would be...in my opinion. I mean, it's full of great imagery that can give you chills....but it's all about being inside a characters head and exploring human nature and why the characters act the way they do. Hard to convey. And from what I've heard they're already changing the nature of the threat in slight ways.

comment #19

Abbey Normal says ...

Unless Andy Kaufman is involved, I want nothing to do with this "happening."

comment #20

raskimono says ...

I read the The Happening when it was sent out as the Green Effect and everybody thought it was a very strong script. It actually read like War of the Worlds meets Signs. In fact we were calling Signs II. It was a very good read with one of the weaknesses of Spielberg's script, the clammy opening of the ineffectual Dad and son relationship that Shyamalan used as well. He was asked to strengthen the characters which he did and there is no way it won't be a big hit. It read better than Signs even with the flaws. This is no Day after Tomorrow. It actually makes you empathize with the global warming trend.

comment #21

The Hoyk says ...

The early '80's Australian thriller LONG WEEKEND (reportedly up for a remake by STORM WARNING director Jamie Blanks) had an effective minimalist variation on this idea: a callow bickering married couple go on holiday and abuse their surroundings, and then in turn become the prey for nature's revenge.

comment #22

Howlingman says ...

And it looks like an M. Night posting's comments have surged past the Indy one. Interesting.

comment #23

jeffmcm says ...

Shyamalan is a good director who has the bad judgment to work with a terrible writer.

comment #24

actionman says ...

"And it wont be Rated R I promise you"

It is rated R...I can promise you

comment #25

lesterg says ...

"This is no Day after Tomorrow. It actually makes you empathize with the global warming trend."

It's a killer plant movie.

comment #26

Arran says ...

Awful title. Especially in tandem with the tagline: "Now it's happening...THE HAPPENING." Wow.

comment #27

bb says ...

Can somebody just tell me the completely unexpected twist ending now so I don't have to bother with the movie? It would save me time.

comment #28

rocco says ...

Why do people insist on saying the aliens' aversion to water was a loophole in 'Signs'?

Human beings put themselves in precarious situations all the time...in front of lava flows, out in the expansive, cold vacuum of Space, and, gee, some even delve thousands of meters below water where, without protection, they'd be crushed and drowned.

comment #29

jeffmcm says ...

Yeah, but when we do those things we wear protective suits, and these aliens just ran around naked.

comment #30

Rich S. says ...

The stills from The Ruins on IMDB do not give me great hope. I thought The Ruins was a good, creepy read, until they revealed the nature of the monster. Then, when I tried to visualize it, it just came off very silly. You are right, Geoff, the really scary stuff is all internal to the characters.

comment #31

DavidF says ...

The water thing in Signs isn't a fatal flaw, per se but, really...if you are attacking a planet to colonize it for your own uses and water kills you, there are probably some other planets you might want to look at. Heck, WE are mostly water.

I mentioned War of the Worlds (the book and movie) too because the bacteria thing seems like such a deus ex machina. The aliens went to all that effort, tore the shit out of the planet and didn't know we had germs here?? (Perhaps this is a bigger flaw in the Spielberg film since he has the martians already hiding here).

That's not to say that in real life we don't see horribly botched invasions of places where it's clear the leaders didn' t know what they were getting in to....

comment #32

Dave says ...

First off, the title *is* as awful as everyone is saying. It sounds like a Simpsons parody.

Second off, everyone is focusing on the global warming plotline-- "The plants fight back! And this time, it's personal!"

Personally, I find the "people kill themselves" angle far more derivative of a slew of other projects-- namely Stephen King's Cell, The Signal, 28 Days Later, etc.

comment #33

Dave says ...

BTW, I haven't read The Ruins, but as long as we're talking internal monologue problems-- can someone tell me how the hell are they going to make a movie out of Cormac McCarthy's The Road? It's *all* internal, or conversations with a child. Unless they do a lot of flashbacks, I'm guessing it's gonna be a silent movie.

comment #34

Rich S. says ...

My hat is off to whomever tries to adapt The Road. If it's not handled right, it will be two hours of a guy coughing and pushing a shopping cart through the snow, with kid in tow. It's a haunting book, but for my money virtually unadaptable.

Now Max Brooks' World War Z, on the other hand...

comment #35

Geoff says ...

Yeah Dave, same applies to THE ROAD. Silent movie is right.

comment #36

tophertilson says ...

Unless they're willing to make the tough choices and depart radically from the book, I don't see THE ROAD working as a movie. I'm sure they're going to be looking to NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN for guidance, but that movie provides the wrong template -- putting the book up on the screen nearly beat for beat, word for word. That strategy worked for the Coens, but it ain't gonna work on THE ROAD.

comment #37

corey3rd says ...

People in Philly are merely choking like the Eagles.

comment #38

Reedyb says ...

Reminds me of the ecological horror of Frogs!

Man, that would be a good remake for M. Night.

I'm also of a mind that World War Z could be great, but The Road sounds problematic (and I read The Ruins about the same time and really don't want to see that one, either).

comment #39

Movie fan09 says ...

toxin by surrounding plant life in an evolutionary last-ditch attempt to protect themselves from the predator that endangers them the most."

i see the famous m night shayamalan twist a mile away.

it's either aliens, polluted water, or some kind of global warming related bit.

comment #40

Movie fan09 says ...

"This is no Day after Tomorrow. It actually makes you empathize with the global warming trend."

wow.
i was right and i didn't even see that comment!

comment #41

jimjonesiii says ...

“It's a killer plant movie”.

Coming from M. Night, I bet is more a lyric meditation about The Blindess of Humankind (that prevent it to see Lady in the Water).

“Perhaps this is a bigger flaw in the Spielberg film since he has the martians already hiding here”.
The opposite. The martians hide their machine before those virus existed.
That was a clever move by Spielberg and his writers, surely influenced by that plot hole in Signs.

comment #42

jeffmcm says ...

Where are you getting "The Martians hide their machine before those virus existed"?

The movie never said they were Martians and it never said it was a virus, let alone a specific virus that's come into existence...when?

comment #43

christian says ...

I love that song.

comment #44

lesterg says ...

"i see the famous m night shayamalan twist a mile away.

it's either aliens, polluted water, or some kind of global warming related bit."

No twist. The only "surprise" comes in the form of a plot point ripped off from Ghostbusters 2.

comment #45

MDOC says ...

M Night's main issue is that he continues to go away from A List actors. Bruce Willis and Mel Gibson bring an audience. While Joaquin Phoenix, Paul Giamatti, and Mark Wahlberg are talented actors, they can't add enough shine to a dull product. I'd also be wary of the release date. I know the Friday the 13th tie in is clever, but against the Hulk in the midst of summer madness? I'd blink and drop back to August.

comment #46

actionman says ...

"Can somebody just tell me the completely unexpected twist ending now so I don't have to bother with the movie? It would save me time."

There is no twist ending.

comment #47

le corbeau says ...

Can somebody just tell me the completely unexpected twist ending now so I don't have to bother with the movie? It would save me time.

They're toys in a trashcan.

http://tinyurl.com/2xy5y4

comment #48

Jack Price says ...

All I can tell you is mood rings play a pivotal role in the climax.

And no, I'm not fucking around.

comment #49

lesterg says ...

Yep.

My favorite part is when the characters outrun wind.

comment #50

nemo says ...

The poster looks like Shyamalan's remake of Godard's Weekend.

The plot description sounds like Shyamalan's remake of Hitchcock's The Birds, but this time ... with plants!

comment #51

Ogami Itto says ...

"[It soon becomes clear] that the deaths have been caused by the release of a toxin by surrounding plant life in an evolutionary last-ditch attempt to protect themselves from the predator that endangers them the most."

So basically this movie is like a boring version of Day of the Triffids, only the killer plants don't move around and eat people.

Can somebody just tell me the completely unexpected twist ending now so I don't have to bother with the movie? It would save me time.

They're toys in a trashcan.

Goddamnit! SPOILER WARNING please.

But I still want to know: Will they use the Diana Ross and the Supremes song?

How about some love for "The Happening" by the Pixies?

comment #52

Howlingman says ...

"How about some love for "The Happening" by the Pixies?"

First time I heard about this project and its title, my first reaction was "M. Night's a Black Francis fan."

comment #53

Movie Watcher says ...

The story almost sounds like "Cell", by Stephen King. Very similar. I think it's going to be made into a movie. M. Night has missed on some of his movies, I hope this is a good one.

comment #54

Rich S. says ...

I'm glad Ogami finally played the Day of the Triffids card. The beginning of that movie still sticks with me to this day. The spores come to Earth in a brilliant light show that the inhabitants of the planet cannot ignore, but which blinds them all and makes them easy pickings for the walking plants. Talk about doing your homework before the invasion.

That is flat-out brilliant, and so far out of M. Night's league it's not even funny.

comment #55

Sean says ...

When I saw 'Lady in the Water', I thought it was not only a career-killer, but one of the best "so terrible you really have to watch it movies" I'd ever seen.

But then Richard Kelly raised the bar, and gave us 'Southland Tales', and I thought, "Well, shit, that can't be beat."

It looks like Night isn't giving up without a fight. This is like the shitty-movie equivalent of 'Revolver' / 'Pet Sounds' / 'Sergeant Pepper'.

comment #56

Jay T. says ...

This will either be fantastic or horrible... no in-between.