Out of all the filmsM. Night Shyamalanhas made over the years, the one that many fans have been asking for a sequel to is his 2000 thrillerUnbreakable. Back in March, actor/comedianPatton Oswaltlaid out his detailed pitch forUnbreakable 2, which the director himself responded to, saying he may fly the comedian out to Philadelphia to help him crack the sequel. As it turns out,M. Night Shyamalanis still interested in making a follow-up toUnbreakable, but now he is considering turning it into a TV series. Here’s what the filmmaker had to say in a recent interview.
“As a way to continue the story, yes. That would [interest me]. I really love where we are. Could you do a six-episodeUnbreakableseries on Netflix or HBO? Yeah! That’s cool. I even had an idea of doing a story that goes in one form, and a second part that’s in another form, and a third one’s in a different form. You never do the same form. It would be like, movie, then, let’s say, cable, to TV, whatever, and then a play; it goes straight online, and it finishes like that. It’s in four different forms, and it never goes back to the old one. It could be kind of cool.”
The director added that, in the 15 years that have passed sinceUnbreakablehit theaters in 2000, a movie sequel is now very much on the same wavelength as a TV series.
“I think it’s interesting that content has changed. The form is now blurring, where we used to say it had to be two hours or episodic. Episodic meant that at each commercial break you had to do this or that. Those were the two forms, that’s it. Now, that’s already changed. The bizarreness of sequels in film is a little bit of what’s going on with the power of TV. Once you’ve created a world and struggles and characters that we now connect with, again, that’s where the story begins. So that’s why sequels have become so powerful. In the old days, it just meant you were gouging them for more money. But it’s almost like every movie now wants to live, and we want to stay with the characters we’ve come to love. Maybe it’s where we are post-9/11 – people have a lot of theories about this, by the way – why it’s harder to make original stuff. We’re scared to invest in something new. That’s why TV is exploding. But because of this interesting psychological need from the audience and the filmmaker, eight episodes of True Detective, like, that’s enough for me. It satiated me. I wouldn’t have wanted to see the film version of it, and to be honest I don’t want to see five seasons of it. But I felt it. It’s sticking to me.”
M. Night Shyamalancurrently serves as executive producer on Fox’sWayward Pines, which debuted earlier this month. WouldUnbreakablebe a better fit as a movie sequel, or as a TV series? Chime in with your thoughts below.
