M. Night Shyamalan's new R-rated thriller The Happening is hitting theaters this Friday, and as he makes the rounds to promote the film he's getting hit with a lot of questions about the upcoming live action Avatar: The Last Airbender movie. Currently the flick is being called simply The Last Airbender so as to not conflict with director James “Titanic” Cameron's upcoming movie Avatar.

Shyamalan has reportedly been working closely with Avatar: The Last Airbender creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko to craft the movie, which he plans to be the first of a trilogy with each movie following one season of the series. Though Shyamalan has long received criticism for his particular brand of storytelling and for the films that followed his smash hit The Sixth Sense, the news that the original Avatar creators are involved and that Shyamalan seems to have huge respect for the story is encouraging news.

"It was just the story. I just loved the story," Shyamalan told ComingSoon.net when asked why he wanted to make the film. "I loved the characters in the story and I felt like I could be me inside this larger canvas of this very long-form movie. I think it inherently had kind of family issues and serious larger topics--at the center, genocide--all kinds of stuff. Cultural differences at the center. It has Buddhism, Hinduism, things I'm interested in. It does have martial arts in a way that's not bang bang bang, but more about the person mastering yourself and the things that I love. I took martial arts for a long time. A ten-year-old at the center. That point of view felt good, like I could do my thing."

Pre-production is well underway for the film and Shyamalan recently unveiled a rough trailer to insiders. The trailer showed concept art for each of the series' four nations that is reportedly very similar to the animated series' art style, and it was revealed that filming would take place in such exotic locales as Greenland and Vietnam. Sets are planned to built in August and casting is happening now, with Shyamalan hinting that he believes he's found the next big star.

Already completed for the film are the storyboards, which detail the movie beginning to end and include almost 20 epic fight scenes. But Shyamalan doesn't want the martial arts to be there just for excitement, he wants the combat to be an extension of the characterization.

"The great thing about it is it's almost like they don't ever really touch each other based in this world,” he told ComingSoon.net about his vision for the fights. “They kind of do a form of manifesting something and then it comes at the other person and they manifest something. It'll be great to do it as extensions of what the characters are feeling, and there'll be much more CG."

There is talk of Shyamalan comparing his ideas to the Star Wars films and how he wants the mythology of the Avatar movies to gain as many fans as those George Lucas classics. While that might be overreaching just a bit, it's good to see that Shyamalan is excited about the project. Though the idea of condensing all of Avatar's first season into one two hour movie seems daunting, so far Shyamalan seems nothing but excited about the prospect.

The Last Airbender is scheduled to be released in theaters on July 2, 2010.


- , BuddyTV Staff Writer
Source: ComingSoon.net, io9
(Image courtesy of Nickelodeon)