M. Night Shyamalan is badly in need of rehab, not the Lohan kind but the “save my career” kind (though Linds probably needs that, too!). Off the back of The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs, it seemed like he could do no wrong. But one The Village and Lady In The Water later and he’s being treated like a biohazard by the top Hollywood studios.

Nevertheless, despite initial apprehension, Fox has agreed to finance The Happening and he’s also teamed with MTV/Paramount to make a trilogy of films based on the very weird cartoon series Avatar: The Last Airbender.

The director talks with the show’s creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino about turning the cartoon into a live-action film on an upcoming Avatar DVD featurette:

“I really was looking for something to do where I could do these cool fighting scenes and everything,” says Night. “Avatar had such a beautiful way of doing that. The supernatural, with all of the elements — that’s another huge thing for me and it’s kind of based in all of this eastern stuff; it’s really beautiful ideas behind it.”

“It’s going to be really hard for me because I really loved what you (Konietzko and Dante) guys did and I’m finding it hard to let go of anything. At first when I put the outline together, I showed it to you guys and it basically had every single thing you guys wrote.”

Shyamalan also added that he’ll likely cast unknowns in the lead roles, which is great, because if I hear or see the name Zac Efron linked with any other movie ever again I may just go insane. Avatar is the first time Shyamalan has collaborated with other screenwriters so it’ll be a real test for him insomuch as now he’ll HAVE to involve others in his creative process.

Source – ign