M. Night Shyamalan Has Some ‘Unconventional Ideas’ for a Possible ‘Unbreakable’ Sequel
Director M. Night Shyamalan is at San Diego Comic-Con to promote his new horror film The Visit — but he knows that the Comic-Con crowd has a soft spot for another of his films, the 2000 superhero drama Unbreakable. Shyamalan’s follow-up to The Sixth Sense starred Bruce Willis as David Dunn, an ordinary man who comes to realize he cannot be physically harmed, and Samuel L. Jackson as his mysterious mentor Elijah Price. In an interview with Yahoo Movies’ Khail Anonymous, Shyamalan discusses the enduring popularity of the film, and reveals whether he has plans to make a sequel. Watch the video above!
When Unbreakable opened in theaters — eight years before Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight — the idea of a dark, dramatic superhero movie was still foreign to audiences. “[Unbreakable] was basically a drama about comic books — so slamming those two genres together and seeing what that was like, treating the subject of comic books as straight drama, as if it was Kramer vs. Kramer,” Shyamalan tells Yahoo Movies. “And I remember at the time it caused this kind of [reaction] like, ‘What is this? What kind of movie is this?’ And I’ve come to cherish that reaction.”
However, when it comes to the question of an Unbreakable sequel — something Shyamalan has been mulling over for years — the director says he’s still on the fence. “You know, it’s been a struggle for me, because when I’m writing my own movies, what really excites me is making something new,” he explains. Another Unbreakable movie, says Shyamalan, wouldn’t feel “new” to him. At the same time, he’s been thinking about it, and tells Yahoo Movies that he has “some unconventional ideas” for how to approach a sequel.
He’s also been paying attention to the ideas of Unbreakable fans — specifically comedian and super-fan Patton Oswalt, who pitched his own Unbreakable sequels in an interview with Screen Junkies earlier this year. “I thought it was really funny and fantastic, and really kind of muscular, his take on the franchise,” says Shyamalan. I can’t think of it as a straightforward sequel — he was moving it into Marvel land, you know? …But it was really fun to hear.”
Shyamalan’s new film The Visit opens in theaters on September 11.
Image credit: Everett Collection
