The Last Airbender

[MacGuffin]

Super Bowl ad

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New Trailer here.

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M. Night Shyamalan says 'Airbender' rises above race issues: 'That's what's so beautiful about anime'
Source: Los Angeles Times

M. Night Shyamalan has a massive plan in mind for "The Last Airbender" -- a patient film trilogy that presents a fantasy epic and also grows progressively darker as its young characters (and actors) mature in front of moviegoers.

That brings to mind both "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy and the "Harry Potter" franchise, and, as you might imagine, that has stirred excitement among executives at Paramount Pictures who would love to have a magical franchise that pulls in billions of dollars at the box office. But because the stakes are so high, there has also been considerable behind-the-scenes hand-wringing because of a nasty fan backlash on a touchy subject -- race and casting.

Check the venting and venom we heard in more than 100 comments that followed an "Airbender" post in January. Here's how one reader summed it up: "I am one of the many who is seriously disappointed that characters who are non-white have been cast with white actors. Only the villain is allowed to be played by a person of color. I expected better of Mr. Shyamalan."

Shyamalan has responded to the threat of revolt. In a breakfast meeting with a circle of journalists and bloggers, the director said he has always cast his films with an open spirit, and that anime, such as the source material for "Airbender," is about blurring the race boundaries of the real world and embracing something more uplifting.

Here, for instance, is how he was quoted by Meredith Woerner at io9.com in a lengthy post that goes deep into topic of the planned mythology and clearly reveals the filmmaker's passion for the property:

"Here's the thing. The great thing about anime is that it's ambiguous. The features of the characters are an intentional mix of all features. It's intended to be ambiguous. That is completely its point. So when we watch Katara, my oldest daughter is literally a photo double of Katara in the cartoon. So that means that Katara is Indian, correct? No, that's just in our house. And her friends who watch it, they see themselves in it. And that's what's so beautiful about anime."

He also says:

When I was doing "Sixth Sense," if you literally read the script he [Cole Sear] has dark hair, black eyes. I always pictured the kid from "Searching For Bobby Fisher" as the lead for "Sixth Sense." And I said, "We are not hiring any blond L.A. kids, OK? Don't even bring them in." Then Haley [Joel Osment] came in and I said, "You've got the part." How can you not have him play this part?

That's always been my lean. I have hopes of what I want them to be, my hope was that the movie would be incredibly diverse. That when we look back on all three movies, that it is one of the most diverse movies of all times. And that is the case when you watch the movies. And it's not an agenda, like when you see a picture of a kid's school and they have everybody on the swings. It's not like that.

[MacGuffin]

'Last Airbender' heading to 3D
Paramount upgrading M. Night Shyamalan pic
Source: Variety

Paramount is looking to ignite the July 4th box office with bigger fireworks by converting M. Night Shyamalan's kid pic "The Last Airbender" to 3D. Studio is keeping the same release date of July 2.

Across Hollywood, studio toppers are furiously working to see what films they can convert. Only hours before Par's announcement, Sony announced it was converting "Green Hornet" and pushing the film's release back from Dec. 22 to Jan. 14.

It turns out Par has been quietly working with a company called Stereo D for more than a year on conversion testing, including on library titles. Three months ago, Stereo D -- which did some work on "Avatar" -- began showing Shyamalan converted footage of "Airbender."

Shyamalan was ultimately satisfied, and signed onto the conversion, which cost between $5 million and $10 million, according to insiders.

"We thought their work was compelling. When was saw how the 'Airbender' tests were developing, we said, 'now let's see if you can impress Night.' That's why we don't have to make any changes to the schedule. We just wanted to make sure we could deliver a great experience before we made the commitment," Paramount vice chair Rob Moore said.

Moore said converting 2D films to 3D is a challenge, and that Par has "found its team" in Stereo D.

From a competitive standpoint, "Airbender" is the only new 3D title to play over the lucrative July 4 frame. "Airbender" opens two weeks after Disney/Pixar's "Toy Story 3" bows on June 18.

Conversion continues to raise controversy, with some contending that a glut of converted titles could cheapen the new technology.

[Stefen]

Yeah, well, M. Night is kind of a hack, so this is expected.

[MacGuffin]

Angry M. Night Shyamalan denies Airbender racism
Source: SciFi Wire

Director M. Night Shyamalan's upcoming movie, The Last Airbender (based on the animated TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender), has been a focus of controversy ever since its cast was announced, with Shyamalan being accused of racism in some quarters for casting Caucasian actors as the heroes in what were originally Asian roles while leaving the story's villains as Asians.

Shyamalan addresses that question in an interview posted at Indie Movies Online with a lengthy answer that starts out in very strange fashion:

"Well, you caught me. I'm the face of racism. I'm always surprised at the level of misunderstanding, the sensitivities that exist. As an Asian-American, it bothers me when people take all of their passion and rightful indignation about the subject and then misplace it. Here's the reality: first of all, the Uncle Iroh character is the Yoda character in the movie, and it would be like saying that Yoda was a villain. So he's Persian."

Shyamalan then adds:

"And Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire) is the actual hero of the series, and he's Indian, OK? The whole point of the movie is that there isn't any bad or good. The irony is that I'm playing on the exact prejudices that the people who are claiming I'm racist are doing. They immediately assume that everyone with dark skin is a villain. That was an incredibly racist assumption which as it turns out is completely incorrect."

The director then gives a detailed breakdown of how he determined the ethnicity of each of the story's Four Nations, giving the Air nomads a mixed background, making the Fire Nation darker, defining the Earth kingdom as being primarily East Asian and having the Water tribe end up European/Caucasian.

Calling Airbender the "most culturally diverse movie series of all time," Shyamalan later sounds an angrier tone as he says,

"You're coming at me, the one Asian filmmaker who has the right to cast anybody I want, and I'm casting this entire movie in this color blind way where everyone is represented. I even had one section of the Earth kingdom as African American, which obviously isn't in the show, but I wanted to represent them, too!"

Shyamalan goes on quite a bit more, claiming he fought for the correct pronunciation of names in the movie and saying that the original anime artwork itself is racially ambiguous, among other things. What seems clear that he's either tired of talking about this or all the talk itself has made him particularly sensitive to these allegations.

The Last Airbender is a huge risk for the filmmaker. He's coming off two box-office flops (Lady in the Water and The Happening) and has gotten Paramount to cough up a huge amount of money—$280 million in production and marketing costs, according to the Los Angeles Times—for a big-screen, 3-D adaptation of an animated series for children. We're sure that the last thing he wants to hear right now is accusations of racism.

[polkablues]

"You're coming at me, the one Asian filmmaker who has the right to cast anybody I want, and I'm casting this entire movie in this color blind way where everyone is represented. I even had one section of the Earth kingdom as African American, which obviously isn't in the show, but I wanted to represent them, too!"

Somewhere, in a large but tasteful house in the Hollywood Hills, Paul Haggis is nodding in approval.

[picolas]

6%

i almost, ALLlLLLmost feel sorry for M Night at this point.


but no.

[Ravi]

^ Its at 5% now.  Was at 7% when I first checked it.

[children with angels]

Has anyone ever fallen from critical grace to the extent of Shyamalan?

[cinemanarchist]

The curse of not making Unbreakable 2, continues.

[polkablues]

He should have made The Seventh Sense.

[Stefen]

He should have made The Seventh Sense.

HAH.

[Reinhold]

even gizmodo is calling it bukkake.

M. Night Shyamalon Finally Made A Comedy

[polkablues]

That review is amazing.