M. Night Shyamalan

The Happening
Running Time 91 minutes
Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan
Starring Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel and John Leguizamo

There’s a moment in the boring, brain-dead new M. Night Shyamalan film The Happening when Mark Wahlberg turns to the camera, trying to suppress a grin, and asks, “Can this really be happening?” I ask the same question every week, but it just gets worse.

It’s not a good sign when a director casts Mr. Wahlberg, a ruddy rapper-turned-actor who looks like a choirboy selling crack in the apse, as a science teacher pondering the mystery of why honeybees are disappearing from coast to coast.  read more »

M. Night Shyamalan takes a fair amount of crap in the press and with audiences these days. He admitted himself in last week’s New York Times interview that he’s known solely as “‘… the guy who makes the scary movies with a twist.’” He will undoubtedly be forever followed around by people saying "I see dead people" thanks to his greatest success, The Sixth Sense in 1999. Some people liked his follow-ups Unbreakable, Signs and The Village well enough. But remember how fast the knives came out after his last film, The Lady in the Water? We’re guessing that’s going to be nothing compared to what’s sure to come after The Happening.  read more »

We caught up with actor/author John Leguizamo last night at the premiere of The Diving Bell and The Butterfly. The native New Yorker stars in the forthcoming adaptation of fellow Colombian Gabriel Garcia Márquez’s novel, Love in the Time of Cholera, which premieres tomorrow. But last night Mr. Leguizamo seemed more focused on a film that is scheduled for release next June, M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening.

“The [project] that I love is The Happening,” he told The Daily Transom, although he kept mum about the nitty-gritty. “You know how M. Knight is,” he said, “you’re given the coded scripts with your name on it; you can’t get any changes unless you hand in the other changes.” Mr. Leguizamo did assure us, however, that the discreet director is “amazing to work with,” he said, later citing cast-and-crew perks like a group trip to Fiji.

Besides listening to his favorite “hot” new album this season, Alicia Key’s As I Am,” he is also working on writing new material, although he immediately added that he will not challenge the writer’s strike.

Grumbling a little, Mr. Leguizamo went on, “I’m writing for myself, not to sell. I’m not crossing any lines, I’m not a scab or a rat. I don’t want that rat in front of my apartment building!... I’m stuck with all this stuff.”