Birth Name: Manoj
Night Shyamalan
Birthdate: August 6, 1970
Birthplace: Pondicherry, India
Occupations: Actor, Director, Writer
Quote: "My biggest fear in life is to be
average." --Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine,
March 8, 1999
Claim to Fame: Wrote and directed eerie blockbuster
The Sixth Sense (1999)Birth Name: Manoj Night
Shyamalan
Wife: Bhavna Shyamalan; married 1993
Family:
Father: Nelliate Shyamalan, cardiologist
Mother: Jayalakshmi Shyamalan, obstetrician
Sister: Veena Shyamalan; born 1964
Daughter: Saleka Shyamalan; born 1996
Daughter: born November 1999
Awards:
1999: Golden Satellite: Best Original Screenplay,
The Sixth Sense
Factoids:
Last name is pronounced SHAH-ma-lawn
As a child, he moved with family from India
to Penn Valley, Pennsylvania
Education:
Tisch School of the Arts, New York University,
New York, New York; B.F.A., film, 1993
Biography
Despite his making amateur movies from the age
of 10, M Night Shyamalan was being groomed for
a medical career by his cardiologist father
and obstetrician mother. When it came time for
college, the Indian-born, Philadelphia-bred
aspiring Spielberg opted to attend NYU's film
school rather than Penn's premed program. While
his parents may have suffered some consternation,
it all worked out in the end, particularly by
1999 when Shyamalan had written and directed
one of the year's biggest and most surprising
hits, the supernatural thriller "The Sixth
Sense".
While attending NYU, the future filmmaker was
determined to develop a catholic aesthetic by
taking liberal arts courses. Less interested
in creating a distinct visual style, he concentrated
on creating rounded characters whose behavior
is rooted in reality. As part of his degree
requirements, Shyamalan completed several screenplays
(including one which became his second produced
film, 1997's "Wide Awake"). In fact,
while still an undergraduate, he was attempting
to put together a deal to direct that film but
negotiations broke down. Instead, he turned
to another idea which eventually became "Praying
With Anger" (1992), a film about an Indian
American who travels to Madras to explore his
roots. Shyamalan took on the leading role as
well as producing, writing and directing chores.
Made for a reported budget of $750,000, it debuted
at the Toronto Film Festival to mostly negative
reviews which effectively killed a national
release. One of the few particularly positive
reviews appeared in DAILY VARIETY (September
22, 1992) which deemed the film "an impressively
self-assured triple-threat debut".
Undeterred, Shyamalan pressed on, selling
the script "Labor of Love", about
a widower and his devotion to his late wife,
to Fox with the guarantee that he would direct.
The studio eventually balked on his helming
the project relegating it to development hell.
In 1995, he sold "Wide Awake" to Miramax
on the condition he direct the film and that
it would be shot in Philadelphia. Focusing on
a ten-year-old Catholic schoolboy who embarks
on a spiritual mission questioning whether his
dead grandfather is being cared for by God,
the script attracted well-known names like Denis
Leary, Dana Delany, Robert Loggia and Rosie
O'Donnell (as a nun!). Most reviewers, however,
found the screenplay too coy and contrived.
A few appreciated Shyamalan's earnestness but
audiences stayed away and "Wide Awake"
quickly was relegated to the video shelves.
While working on a 1997 rewrite of the script
for a combined live action-animated version
of the E B White children's classic "Stuart
Little" (1999), Shyamalan also drafted
the original script for "The Sixth Sense",
a tidy thriller about a clairvoyant boy that
became a summer blockbuster in part because
of a twist ending that drew audiences back for
multiple viewings. The film offered Bruce Willis
a fine showcase but young Haley Joel Osment
emerged as the real star. The movie's success
and six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture,
Best Director and Best Original Screenplay undoubtedly
served as a balm for his previous failures.
It also helped that he picked up a record $5
million for his next script, the suspense thriller
with supernatural overtones "Unbreakable"
(2000), and another $5 million as director of
the project. Clearly Shyamalan had made the
right choice when he opted not to become a doctor.
"Unbreakable" was released to eager
audiences in 2000 and was quickly panned by
critics. Shyamalan had failed to live up to
the expectations set by "The Sixth Sense"
but one can't help but wonder if all the pressure
led to the deflated feeling of "Unbreakable."
Shyamalan sought to correct his record with
the intriguing Sci-fi thriller "Signs"
in 2002. Mel Gibson starred as a reverend in
a small town in Pennsylvania whose farm begins
producing mysterious crop circles.
