M. Night Shyamalan to do live-action "Avatar" film !!

[Lene]

Spike Lee on the other hand actually makes decent movies, cameos or no camoes. Just sayin' (JMO btw).

Ixis, I'm not even a fan of Avatar as I had mentioned already. I just don't think Shyamalan is a good director/writer. After the Sixth Sense, and maybe Signs, his movies have just gone downhill. I think he had one good idea and now he's just milking the benefits of that idea for all it's worth.

Also from what I know about the series (because I have watched it, enough to know I don't like it), I think it's just a mismatch completely. To have an example...Alfonso Cuaron (whose new movie Children of Men ,that I must see, is out) was selected to do Harry Potter. Yeah he did Y Tu Mama Tambien which was...pretty far away from what Harry Potter was, but I'm pretty sure one of the factors of his selection was the fact that he directed one of the best children movies out there--A Little Princess.

I'm not sure Avatar and the Sixth Sense have anything to do with one another...

 

[Anonymous]

OT: I actually anticipated the 6th Sense plot twist. You don't have to believe me, though. No one but my husband does. I thought it was dead clear (no pun intended). However, I can't tell you how Harry Potter will end other than Harry will defeat Voldemort.

I'm a pretty big fan of the series, and I can't see this working.

First, the characters. Unlike a novel or a cartoon with inhuman characters, the characters in Avatar have definate features, voices, and looks that would be difficult to reproduce all of it faithfully in a human actor. Where are you going to find someone who looks just like, is the same relative height as, and sounds just like the voice actor for Katara? Let alone every single other major and some minor cast members. Right there, that's going to jar the experience if even one of them isn't "themselves."

Second, the director. Sure, maybe he's trying to get out from under way he's been stereotyped as a director by making something entirely new. But nothing in his track records suggests he can make something relatively straightforward, lighthearted and fun but not afraid to have relatively deep characters and occasionaly touch on darker subject matter, and above all, aimed at a young audiance. That makes me very wary.

Maybe it will surprise me and work. But right now, I look at it and think "why? Dear muse of animation, why?"

 

[FlippyD]

Ixis, regarding your arguments about my point, look more carefully: I think the whole idea is bad, and I would not be heartily excited about it if the creators were making it, either... although I would be much, much more keen than I am to see something I like very much as it is being changed in, so far as I can see, most ways imaginable. And that is why fans generally complain about things like the Transformers movie, or Shyamalan doing an Avatar movie. In the former case, the movie looks nothing like Transformers. All the stylings of Transformers that I remember from my childhood have been pissed on in many places... when something has a look that has become iconic for a generation, why would anyone think they needed to turn this into this? Regardless of which style you prefer, it is an enormous diversion from the norm. It sends the message that they don't believe the existing style was good, it needed to be changed so drastically that it is no longer even recognisable; to fans more than anyone, that says they don't respect the existing franchise.

Likewise, one of the major recognisable aspects of Avatar is a cartoony, lighthearted adventure-story approach to a serious plot, turning what could easily be portrayed as fairly dark fantasy into a show for young adults. That is its appeal, even to adults. I can get decent dark fantasy anywhere. Avatar would be really bad dark fantasy. The lighthearted approach is what makes it not only palatable, but great fun to watch. When I see "M Night Shyamalan" and "live action", I am immediately sent the message that this will not be light hearted, nor an adventure story. Perhaps that is selling it short, but placing a very typecast - by his own hand, since he writes his own screenplays - essentially failed director (one needs only look at the sharp falloff in his market gross to confirm that he is, indeed, failing... and fast) in charge of a movie version of a popular show that does not fit that typecast cannot be expected to bring anything but shock and doubt to anyone who knows anything about the subject matter... fans or no.

Hope that illuminated the reactions for you a bit. Also, just for conversation's sake, anyone who did not get the twists in Unbreakable and the Village needs to be hit with a stick. I got the twist in the Village from watching the trailer. :p 6th sense was so good because nobody expected a twist... since then, it has lost its power.

Yes, it does give the impression that the creators have no respect for the style, but how else would one create a live-action Transformers movie without making things look real? Yes, they could take the TMNT movie approach, and make it light-hearted, and for kids, but in my opinion I think the realistic designs are just fine. I also grew up watching Transformers and Beast Wars just like thousands of other people talking about the movie. I have no problem with the change, and I'll tell you why.

I've written screenplays before (only one was long enough for film though, approx. 2 hours of filmtime.) I've also taken classes on pre-production design and storyboarding/animatic/camera work. Knowing all that will go into any major production (and the small army of people needed to make the film work) I think it'd be a miracle to get not only a good film, but a good film completely faithful to the original vision. I'd rather go to the theatre and see a "good" movie based on something I enjoyed in my childhood than the cartoon I saw in my childhood awkwardly hewn into movie format.

LotR worked because the team was familiar with the subject matter, loved the books and because they sought to make a great series of films. The X-Men and Spider-Man films take a few liberties with the source materials, but I think they work great as just films. Wolverine isn't jumping around in his normal costume, the Spider-Man films kind of warp the comic book continuity, etc etc etc. They work in part because I believe the production teams sat down and decided to focus on good cinema instead of satiating fan interest first and then good film.

Hell, look at Sam Raimi and Spider-Man. The guy directed goofy-campy cult-horror flics and then works on a comic book liscense movie. The feel behind his directing in both series' is completely different. Evil Dead is more cartoonish while Spider-Man has an epic feel to it. Go watch Evil Dead 2 and Spider-Man 2 and check out his pacing and shot usage.


Sure, there might be a problem if, for instance, Avatar carried a certain and specific artistic message. Not the generic "believe in your friends" droll, but something more specific, where the message precedes the action and adventure. Something like "Pan's Labrynth", then the style, message and tone of the original work should be kept in-place. Otherwise, I'd say the production team is better-off concentrating on good filmmaking than making a children's cartoon show last an hour and a half instead of a half-hour.

Too many people get hung up on the story their telling. Too many "storytellers" love their story and not storytelling. When I approach my projects I do it from the standpoint of making people enjoy the story, that's what it's there for, after all. If I were doing something different (an art-piece) then I'd become engrossed in the telling.


Of course there's something to be said for keeping the fans happy, but that'll be hard no matter who takes up the reins. If it's Shyamalan, then it's Shyamalan, and instead of coming up with 100 ways he will fail, I think as a community it'd be more productive if we thought up of ways in which the project itself could be saved. If we're all supposed to be working on indie RPG games that we hope someone somewhere might enjoy it might be a better excercise to pontificate amongst ourselves on how best we might overcome this problem if we were in Shyamalan's position.

 

[Marcus]

Ixis, I could extend this argument with valid points and stuff but I think I only need to post one sentence that sums up all of my feelings pretty nicely.

If Shyamalan is given the green light on this, it will turn into another Live Action Dragon Ball Z.

Marcus, Tana draws Song/Meng fanart. I think she's got you beaten, Smellerbee has far more episodes than they do, and as an associate of Jet has a pretty good fan following.

wow...

yea she has me beat.

but i was a fan of smellerbee way before season 2

it's a shame i'm going to be in iraq until august so i'll miss half of season 3.

 

[arcthemonkey]

Wes Craven did Shawshank Redemption, didn't he? That was a bit of a missmatch.

Put ccoa, I caught Sixth Sense's twist AND The Village. As a writer myself, I've become VERY conscious of forshadowing, and as I've said before - I'm paranoid of this guys films.

Spoiler

(That contributed largely to my constant suspicion that a jet would fly overhead in The Village)

I don't see how we can talk objectively about his abilities as a director though, since he wrote everything he directed as far as I know.

Also, how dare you mention Children of Men - yet another movie I want to see that won't ever show here.

 

[Marcus]

Also, how dare you mention Children of Men - yet another movie I want to see that won't ever show here.

Children of Men was pretty good but I would have liked it better if it wasn't so GENERIC. The plot itself was neat, but everything from the Totalitarian Fascist state to the terrorists turned "freedom" fighters was pretty "lol generic future" to me. I wouldn't mind seeing a movie where the cities are good and everything outside is evil or one where the government is good and the freedom fighters are indeed evil.

But you need to see Pan's Labrynth. That film was MAGICAL

 

[Erk]

no time or energy for another big counterargument post, so let me just add one point, mostly in reply to ccoa: I would think if they made an Avatar movie, it would be about one of the previous or future Avatar incarnations. Having it be about the gAang would be really, really dumb for the reasons ccoa has listed. I can't remember if I thought of that earlier.

 

[Sketch]

Totally OT:Am I the only one that really liked Unbreakable and knew the twist (not like it was hidden) from the first scene with Sam Jackson?

And I don't like Avatar, so this doesn't matter to me either way :P

 

[Tana]

Seriously, look at the Powerpuff Girls Movie... Look at the Spongebob Squarepants movie!! Hell, look at ANY Nickelodeon movie based on one of their shows.

Powerpuff Girls isn't Nick.... its Warner Brothers. (Cartoon Network) and it wasn't live action.

and honestly I don't touch the rest of the Nick shows with a 10foot pole, let alone Spongebob.

Having the movie be about another avatar other than Aang might be okay... but then again, look at the sequels to The Crow.


Unbreakable and 6th Sense were good... and yeah, I got them. But I can't bring myself to watch Signs (I saw the horrid CG animation in the ending) nor any of the other movies.