Samuel L. Jackson Humiliated M. Night Shyamalan, Said All His Films Since ‘Unbreakable’ Were Bad Before Starring in His $247M Movie
M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable is a 2000 American superhero thriller picture written, produced, and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, featuring Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, and others. Despite having worked with director M. Night Shyamalan multiple times, Samuel L. Jackson had previously thought that the filmmaker had not made a movie as good as Unbreakable. Even though Shyamalan had directed several films after their first collaboration in 2000, Jackson felt that they didn’t meet the same standards as their initial project.
Samuel L. Jackson revealed that the company assumed Unbreakable was a failure.
Samuel L. Jackson believed that the studio considered the 2000 film, Unbreakable, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, to be a failure because it didn’t make as much money as Shyamalan’s previous hit, The Sixth Sense. Despite receiving critical praise, Jackson thought this was one of the factors that prevented the greenlighting of an Unbreakable sequel at the time.
“I always assumed that the studio looked at it as a failure because it didn’t make as much money as the ‘I see dead people movie,'” said Jackson
M. Night Shyamalan, according to Samuel L. Jackson, has not produced a truly great picture since Unbreakable
Unbreakable by M. Night Shyamalan was initially intended to be a series. Unbreakable appeared to have a greater chance of remaining a solo film as more time passed since the first film opened in theatres. Jackson found this disappointing and thought Shyamalan made a mistake by not continuing the plot the way he had planned. Particularly considering Jackson believed Shyamalan hadn’t recently produced a film of Unbreakable’s caliber.
In a 2012 interview with HuffPost, Jackson remarked, “I mean, he hasn’t made a really good movie since then.”
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Jackson thought Shyamalan was reluctant to continue the plot of Unbreakable because of the film’s early box-office success. He likened it to what Quentin Tarantino went through after releasing Jackie Brown.
“Well, (Shyamalan) suffered the same fate as Quentin when he made Jackie Brown. He didn’t make Pulp Fiction 2, but he did make Jackie Brown, which is a fantastic f***ing film,” Jackson said. “However, it wasn’t Pulp Fiction 2. Unbreakable also lacked the ‘I see dead individuals’ figures. That was an issue for him… for his ego and the company.”
Even after all these years, Jackson was confident that if an Unbreakable sequel were to be revealed, it would garner enormous interest. “Everyone would be waiting for it, yeah.” It would be insane. “It’d be trending all over Twitter right now,” Jackson said.
M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable sequel gift for Samuel L. Jackson
It took some time, but Shyamalan would ultimately write an Unbreakable sequel. One of the biggest surprises about the 2017 Shyamalan film Split was its link to the Bruce Willis superhero film. Jackson was among those who were taken aback by this connection after seeing Split on Shyamalan’s suggestion.
“I had no idea what Split was about or anything else, and (Shyamalan) said, ‘We’ll talk after you see it,’ says the author. So I went to the scheduled viewing and immediately phoned him, saying, ‘OK dude, does this mean what I think it means?’ ‘Well, first we have to see how the video does,’ he said.
Split would eventually lead to the third Unbreakable film, Glass, finishing Shyamalan’s superhero trifecta.
Source: ShowBiz cheatsheet
