Shyamalan Not Responsible for "Last Airbender" failure

[SolarpunkFan]

As usual I apologize if this is in the wrong part of the forums.

https://moviepilot.com/posts/3270452

Although this is an old news, it still is essential I think to be aware of the true story behind the failure of Paramount Pictures’ The Last Airbender (2010) directed by M. Night Shyamalan. The writer/director/producer does not need any introduction here. The filmmaker, his filmography, since the blockbuster success of The Sixth Sense (1999) and moving on with few more riveting titles for Disney made the respective studio over $3 billion. However, the filmmaker’s writing and directorial prowess are still being questioned.

M.Night Shyamalan is an original thinker. His oeuvre speaks for itself; he is a filmmaker, who isn’t simply fond of making the same film twice. As a screenwriter, I still look up to him and will continue to do so, for his writing (The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable) truly moved me. They opened the door between my mind and heart that screenwriting can be done by myself as well. However, his decision (an important one for him) to make The Last Airbender based on the hit Nickelodeon series was a mistake. I still haven’t seen the respective show, though for Shyamalan, an original storyteller, to tackle a hit series that’s not at all based on his ideas was the factor I was afraid of.

When the film was completed and later converted to 3D, also one of the biggest errors, it released to be only loathed by the fans and critics. I remember reading eight to ten reviews the same day all bashing the filmmaker. Today, it has been almost six years since its release, and whenever someone brings the subject of The Last Airbender it is Shyamalan to blame. Yesterday, a piece by GeekTyrant attacked the filmmaker, whom recently defended The Last Airbender. The filmmaker told IGN, "My child was nine-years-old. So you could make it one of two ways: you could make it for that same audience, which is what I did, for nine and 10-year-olds, or you could do the 'Transformers' version and have Megan Fox."

Defending his film, there’s nothing that we can do, for as the director, and also as a fan of the show, Shyamalan has all the rights. But, the question is, is he really the person to blame for the failure of The Last Airbender?

The answer to the question above is a “no.” Shyamalan is not to blame for the failure of the film. In fact, he is owed an apology. Here is why. There is a story that not many are aware of. Last summer, Joblo penned a piece spreading the word, the story behind the making of The Last Airbender, divulged passionately on the AvatarSpirit.net forums. The story, however, is no longer available on the forum. It was published by someone who worked on the production of the film and the increased attention got her concerned as her career was going to be in jeopardy. In her writing, she said:

"Production wrapped 5 years ago so I don't think Paramount is going to care. They know it bombed.

What it came down to was M Night really was the only one who knew the show and what he was doing (the first draft of the screenplay? gorgeous. hence Bryke giving him the okay). The producers, who are actually in charge of at least 80% of production including casting.... not so much. They clearly never bothered to watch the show, nor had the ghostwriter who did the final screenplay.
Nicola was hired because she's the daughter of someone one of the producers owed a favor to as Hollywood loves its nepotism. (Her audition tape was subpar at best). In having to cast her they had to cast a guy who could pass as her brother - hence Jackson. His audition was actually pretty good. He's a funny guy and had clearly seen the show. Too bad the producers felt the movie didn't have time for intentional humor and cut all that out of the script. Noah was the only one who honestly openly auditioned and was chosen based on talent. He just needed extra help acting because with a lot of it being green screened he was talking to air a lot of the time. Experienced adults have a hard time doing that let alone a kid.

If you recall they initially signed on Jesse McCartney as Zuko. Why? Because otherwise the lead actor roster would be "starring: two unknown kids you never heard of and that guy who played a minor character in Twilight!". And then someone with a brain realized "wait a minute this show is kind of anime-esque and we're hiring a bunch of white kids. Um.". So what did they do? Because they couldn't can Nicola without someone being really ticked, Jesse willingly bowed out and went with another project offered at the time. Even still, they still needed a big name to draw people in but it couldn't be another white kid. Dev Patel just gave an Oscar-winning performance and was willing to sign on. And in getting him they had to make the rest of the Fire Nation match. Which is why it turned into heroic white kids VS evil brown people (which was intentionally unintentional).

And then it was horribly budgeted. The opening at the SWT all nice and pretty in Greenland? Cost big bucks. And then they realized with a story about people manipulating elements that couldn't be believably done with in camera practical effects. So they had to rebudget and gave most of the money to ILM for post production. You go from the beautiful SWT to everything looking dingy because everything else was shot in Pennsylvania. The Fire Nation Royal Palace? An old high school in Philadelphia. Parts of the Earth Kingdom (including Kyoshi Island which got cut)? Reading, PA. And everything that was the NWT.... some sets built in front of giant green screens in an old emptied aircraft hangar in the outskirts of Philadelphia. Yeah.

And ILM was rushed despite most of the movie's look being left up to them. And you had novice directors hired by producers to oversee that process. That's how come the pebble dance happened. Sadly at that point M Night was just tired of arguing with the overheads, gave up, and collected his paycheck. If you look at the movie's premiere and red carpet footage you can tell his excitement and happiness is fake. Bryke had little say in the film despite being listed as executive producers. That title was a fancy way of saying that they created the show it was based on and they're still alive so they need some kind of nice credit. The actual producers didn't know what they were dealing with and were only interested in a quick buck. Bryke and M Night gave up on the film around the same time for same reasons. The other people working on the film were a pain to deal with and Nickelodeon themselves only wanted the final product as quickly as possible and the money it would presumably make them.

At least they hired good caterers. The food was great on that set."

Not only Joblo was able to cover the story. MNightfans.com, one of the longest running sites dedicated to the work of the filmmaker picked up the story in not one, but two pieces discussing the chaos in its entirety (here and here).

Now that some of us know the real story of the film’s failure and that Shyamalan is not to blame, you may wonder why is Shyamalan staying quiet. That’s because Shyamalan is a classy fellow. He’s a professional, a gentleman, a filmmaker who loves cinema. He’s willing to take the blame for everything and also ready to be bashed and disrespected over and over, since he’s M.Night Shyamalan, who is into all things original, but wanted to also make a fun and entertaining film for the kids.

Dang. A perfect storm of shit just hit M. Night when he was trying to make a movie he was really passionate about making.

I actually feel bad about those M. Night jokes I thought were funny after the film's release.

[ray245]

As usual I apologize if this is in the wrong part of the forums.

https://moviepilot.com/posts/3270452

Although this is an old news, it still is essential I think to be aware of the true story behind the failure of Paramount Pictures’ The Last Airbender (2010) directed by M. Night Shyamalan. The writer/director/producer does not need any introduction here. The filmmaker, his filmography, since the blockbuster success of The Sixth Sense (1999) and moving on with few more riveting titles for Disney made the respective studio over $3 billion. However, the filmmaker’s writing and directorial prowess are still being questioned.

M.Night Shyamalan is an original thinker. His oeuvre speaks for itself; he is a filmmaker, who isn’t simply fond of making the same film twice. As a screenwriter, I still look up to him and will continue to do so, for his writing (The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable) truly moved me. They opened the door between my mind and heart that screenwriting can be done by myself as well. However, his decision (an important one for him) to make The Last Airbender based on the hit Nickelodeon series was a mistake. I still haven’t seen the respective show, though for Shyamalan, an original storyteller, to tackle a hit series that’s not at all based on his ideas was the factor I was afraid of.

When the film was completed and later converted to 3D, also one of the biggest errors, it released to be only loathed by the fans and critics. I remember reading eight to ten reviews the same day all bashing the filmmaker. Today, it has been almost six years since its release, and whenever someone brings the subject of The Last Airbender it is Shyamalan to blame. Yesterday, a piece by GeekTyrant attacked the filmmaker, whom recently defended The Last Airbender. The filmmaker told IGN, "My child was nine-years-old. So you could make it one of two ways: you could make it for that same audience, which is what I did, for nine and 10-year-olds, or you could do the 'Transformers' version and have Megan Fox."

Defending his film, there’s nothing that we can do, for as the director, and also as a fan of the show, Shyamalan has all the rights. But, the question is, is he really the person to blame for the failure of The Last Airbender?

The answer to the question above is a “no.” Shyamalan is not to blame for the failure of the film. In fact, he is owed an apology. Here is why. There is a story that not many are aware of. Last summer, Joblo penned a piece spreading the word, the story behind the making of The Last Airbender, divulged passionately on the AvatarSpirit.net forums. The story, however, is no longer available on the forum. It was published by someone who worked on the production of the film and the increased attention got her concerned as her career was going to be in jeopardy. In her writing, she said:

"Production wrapped 5 years ago so I don't think Paramount is going to care. They know it bombed.

What it came down to was M Night really was the only one who knew the show and what he was doing (the first draft of the screenplay? gorgeous. hence Bryke giving him the okay). The producers, who are actually in charge of at least 80% of production including casting.... not so much. They clearly never bothered to watch the show, nor had the ghostwriter who did the final screenplay.
Nicola was hired because she's the daughter of someone one of the producers owed a favor to as Hollywood loves its nepotism. (Her audition tape was subpar at best). In having to cast her they had to cast a guy who could pass as her brother - hence Jackson. His audition was actually pretty good. He's a funny guy and had clearly seen the show. Too bad the producers felt the movie didn't have time for intentional humor and cut all that out of the script. Noah was the only one who honestly openly auditioned and was chosen based on talent. He just needed extra help acting because with a lot of it being green screened he was talking to air a lot of the time. Experienced adults have a hard time doing that let alone a kid.

If you recall they initially signed on Jesse McCartney as Zuko. Why? Because otherwise the lead actor roster would be "starring: two unknown kids you never heard of and that guy who played a minor character in Twilight!". And then someone with a brain realized "wait a minute this show is kind of anime-esque and we're hiring a bunch of white kids. Um.". So what did they do? Because they couldn't can Nicola without someone being really ticked, Jesse willingly bowed out and went with another project offered at the time. Even still, they still needed a big name to draw people in but it couldn't be another white kid. Dev Patel just gave an Oscar-winning performance and was willing to sign on. And in getting him they had to make the rest of the Fire Nation match. Which is why it turned into heroic white kids VS evil brown people (which was intentionally unintentional).

And then it was horribly budgeted. The opening at the SWT all nice and pretty in Greenland? Cost big bucks. And then they realized with a story about people manipulating elements that couldn't be believably done with in camera practical effects. So they had to rebudget and gave most of the money to ILM for post production. You go from the beautiful SWT to everything looking dingy because everything else was shot in Pennsylvania. The Fire Nation Royal Palace? An old high school in Philadelphia. Parts of the Earth Kingdom (including Kyoshi Island which got cut)? Reading, PA. And everything that was the NWT.... some sets built in front of giant green screens in an old emptied aircraft hangar in the outskirts of Philadelphia. Yeah.

And ILM was rushed despite most of the movie's look being left up to them. And you had novice directors hired by producers to oversee that process. That's how come the pebble dance happened. Sadly at that point M Night was just tired of arguing with the overheads, gave up, and collected his paycheck. If you look at the movie's premiere and red carpet footage you can tell his excitement and happiness is fake. Bryke had little say in the film despite being listed as executive producers. That title was a fancy way of saying that they created the show it was based on and they're still alive so they need some kind of nice credit. The actual producers didn't know what they were dealing with and were only interested in a quick buck. Bryke and M Night gave up on the film around the same time for same reasons. The other people working on the film were a pain to deal with and Nickelodeon themselves only wanted the final product as quickly as possible and the money it would presumably make them.

At least they hired good caterers. The food was great on that set."

Not only Joblo was able to cover the story. MNightfans.com, one of the longest running sites dedicated to the work of the filmmaker picked up the story in not one, but two pieces discussing the chaos in its entirety (here and here).

Now that some of us know the real story of the film’s failure and that Shyamalan is not to blame, you may wonder why is Shyamalan staying quiet. That’s because Shyamalan is a classy fellow. He’s a professional, a gentleman, a filmmaker who loves cinema. He’s willing to take the blame for everything and also ready to be bashed and disrespected over and over, since he’s M.Night Shyamalan, who is into all things original, but wanted to also make a fun and entertaining film for the kids.

Dang. A perfect storm of shit just hit M. Night when he was trying to make a movie he was really passionate about making.

I actually feel bad about those M. Night jokes I thought were funny after the film's release.

That's assuming that M. Night even tried to do anything to ensure the film is watchable even if there is massive problem with the script and casting. Editing, pacing are all over the place as well.

The execs at Paramount haven't exactly been good at producing any major franchise other than Transformers. They have so many franchise on their hands and they destroyed one property after another all because they wanted to make some quick bucks.

Yeah, those studio execs deserve to be fired.

[The Romulan Republic]

Hell, the overall quality of Star Trek over the last twenty years (a few gems aside) is reason enough to hold Paramount's "leadership" in low regard.

[Q99]

Not all of the problems can be attributed to the above, like "Aang steals Katara's speeches," but yea, it sounds like the execs really roughed it over.

[Ziggy Stardust]

My main problem with the article is that it points to "The Sixth Sense" and "Unbreakable" as reasons to give M. Night the benefit of the doubt, completely ignoring the fact that in the 10 years between those and "The Last Airbender" he made a series of movies that at their best could be described as 'mediocre', with little to no evidence of studio interference (for example, on "Lady in the Water" there are some stories floating around about how fastidious and controlling M. Night was over every facet of the writing, direction, and production, which didn't stop it from being an almost unwatchable mess).

I'm fine with saying that M. Night is not SOLELY responsible for "The Last Airbender" being a bad movie, and certainly there's no reason to think that the studio executives did any favors with their decisions on the project, but it's not like Shyamalan is some paragon of artistic integrity and bold film-making given his rather well established history of sloppy, derivative projects (I mean, even a movie of his that I personally liked -"Signs" - is essentially a half-assed "War of the Worlds" rip-off, whose scenes alternate haphazardly between some that are legitimately well-constructed and interesting and others that are almost painfully generic or downright stupid).

[Isolder74]

I'm sure that executive meddling didn't help with the movie but I can't give M. Night a pass. He did write a majority of the script. Much of the staging, one of the reasons the bending is terrible, was all him and reflects his constant attempts at one shot scene staging, which never works for action. The stilted dialogue is all him and fits with his style of film making.

Sure Paramount fiddling probably didn't help but a majority of the film's problems were all Shyamalan.

[Vendetta]

If you're the writer, producer, and editor of a film and it's bad, you're damn right it's your fault.

Shyamalavatar fails at absolutely fundamental concepts of film editing and direction, basic shit I could get right like shot reverse shot is fucked, there are hanging actions all over the place (actions at the end of a scene that don't matter to the next scene), and absolutely basic failures of storytelling like Aang and Katara not even learning each other's names until they'd spent, in narrative several days or weeks travelling together.

It uses an inappropriate style of cinematography for action scenes which leads to obvious cases of actors standing around waiting for their cues but being visible due to the wide angle long pans, and so on.

"But teh executives" does not wash. Things which were absolutely under Shyamalan's control were done wrong. Basic filmmaking techniques were done wrong.

[Jub]

Technically aren't all of Shyamalan's faults the executives faults given that they hired him to create the film in the first place and didn't try to replace him and reshoot things once it was clear they were handed a bomb?

[Q99]

"But teh executives" does not wash. Things which were absolutely under Shyamalan's control were done wrong. Basic filmmaking techniques were done wrong.

One could say that once the meddling happened, he really gave up to an unreasonable extent.

[Isolder74]

"But teh executives" does not wash. Things which were absolutely under Shyamalan's control were done wrong. Basic filmmaking techniques were done wrong.

One could say that once the meddling happened, he really gave up to an unreasonable extent.

It sounds much more like once again M Night being completely unable to take responsibility for his own failures using his own two best movies as a distraction. So instead of doing it himself he's having someone else spout his crap. This is no different then when he wrote his book about the making of Lady in the Water basically blaming everything wrong with that movie on everyone but himself. As far as I can tell in the eyes of Shyamalan nothing is EVER his fault. Once again we have just more of the same. I suppose After Earth(with its similar world building failures) wasn't his fault either now too.

Just claiming he gave up trying doesn't wash when we see several times major problems with the film coming from scenes being staged and directed in distinctive M Night 'Artistic' styling and staging that he is very much his way of doing things(or just plain him showing off). Claiming location not being the exotic locations he wanted is Bull. If filming not in the required location, other then when it is required such as using a desert for a desert but obviously not etc, those can be dealt with. There is such a thing as building set pieces to make Pennsylvania look asian with one way backgrounds that can make up for that. Lots of movies are filmed in places other then where they should be and they do just fine.

You can't name ILM either because they are only doing what the script AND the director are telling them to do and such things as obvious bending scenes having the bending missing are squarely in the hands of the director. And to say that bending can't be done with practical effects is a bit of a cop out. Some water effects can be done with such things and cheaper then CGI, such as Disneylandish fountain rigs and hoses hidden in set pieces. Sure for safety reason most of the fire effect have to be in post but even some of the earth bending could be made with cheaper techniques. Air effects could be done on set too with fans, smoke etc too.

So stilted dialogue just like in his other works wasn't his fault, overly elaborate staging just for 'artistic effect' he had nothing to do with, changing the pronunciations with him insisting it was that way wasn't him and emotionless direction from actors who have done better had nothing to do with him.