Here’s M. Night Shyamalan on what he loves about films, the creative process and more
How do you get the ideas for your screenplays?
I try to tell people an idea has a sound core and if the core is ‘sticky’… I mean, you can tell by the stickiness of an idea about whether you can build it into a big film over the next year-and-a-half to two years. For example, an alien invasion from the point of view of a family. That may be the thing that pops into my head and I spend the next year to a year and a half adding ideas to it. Like, what if the guy was a priest and what if the mom had died. What if this happened, what if that happened… it’s really all about the stickiness of the film.
Why do you always make sci-fi films?
I wouldn’t say they were all sci-fi. They always have another genre element to it. But to me, all my films have been dramas. I’d like to next do a full-on drama. I also like to talk in metaphors in my movies and weaving in elements of different genres gives me the ability to do that. Aliens, monsters in the woods or whatever. I use a metaphor to delve into the characters’ level of faith without getting into religion.
Where do your ideas come from?
Ideas come to me very casually when I’m not paying attention. Then there’s little stages of graduation where I take an idea more seriously. I jot down ideas and then there’s a critical mass or tipping point, a moment of commitment after which I get into a routine. And then I’m wholly involved. I write at home in my home office in the morning. I try to get a couple of pages done after which I go to office and there are a lot of calls to make so the writing gets pushed till evening. Then, if I am lucky, I’ll get another chunk of time at about 4 pm when all of Los Angeles goes to lunch!
Are you often in LA?
I don’t spend a lot of time there. I’m always visiting for the selling of a movie or at the time of the completion of one. So, those visits are always filled with adrenaline. It is exciting; dreams come true over there.
How different is a finished movie that you make, from your original idea?
I’m drawn to the emotional colour of a movie. So the idea might be a bit different from what is finished. It varies as you execute each movie. But the thing that really guides me is the emotional colour. By that, I mean the emotion that that particular character evokes in me. The final product always evokes that same feeling as when I first thought of the idea. For After Earth, Will Smith called to wish me happy birthday and I expressed I was a fan of his son’s acting and then he said that he had an idea… It excited me and it took off from there.
Every film you’ve made has a child playing an important role… Why so?
I am obsessed by that period, where a child has to give up the things he or she believes in — that the world if full of magic and wonder — and starts to become more adult. I find that phase a bittersweet moment. So, I like to make movies about that very bittersweet moment, when we start to let go of the magic.
