Sources Say Shyamalan May Be Struggling To Sell Latest Script

I'm not going to take this opportunity to say that I always believed M. Night Shyamalan is a hack. Sure, I never bought into the hype that he was the next Spielberg or Hitchcock, but I do like one of his films (Unbreakable) and I think he has some brilliant scenes in two others (The Sixth Sense and Signs). After two flops, though, he seems to be running out of good ideas and out of loyal defenders. Of course, he's still a talented director of suspenseful scenes, and he's still pretty young.

In a post about the biggest flops of last year, I wrote that it is probably a good time for Shyamalan to try directing someone else's script. And maybe he was reading (I doubt it), because two weeks later the announcement came that he was, yes, directing someone else's script. Or, at least adapting someone else's idea and then directing that. However, it now appears he's still trying his luck (and his own ideas). Insiders told TMZ recently that Shyamalan is shopping his latest original script around Hollywood, and so far he isn't seeing a lot of interest.

The script is reportedly titled Green Planet, and it has something to do with an alien invasion. Claude Brodesser-Akner at TMZ thinks the concept sounds too much like War of the Worlds, but even so, I think it is more of a problem that we've already seen an alien invasion story from Shyamalan. And despite an amazing sequence midway through that story, the film, Signs, is a pretty silly thriller. At this point, Shyamalan should just be happy with his potential franchise in Avatar: The Last Airbender.