It took less than a month for the back-slapping over M. Night Shyamalan’s latest to turn into back-stabbing. In this attack story, the focus isn’t the movie, it’s the director:

What’s the most evil-looking photo we could run with this hatchet job? Ah, that’s the one.

… the consensus at the moment seems to point to the hotshot American writer-director [M. Night Shyamalan] as an egomaniacal spoilt brat who truly believes he is the next Spielberg. That’s what Hollywood pundits are saying, especially after what he did - he bit the hand that fed him… In the book, the 35-year-old slags off his ex-bosses royally because they didn’t “get” his script for Lady…

… the damage from the book looks to have [been] unwittingly inflicted [on] Shyamalan… more than the Disney folks. While creative differences are as common as fake tans in Hollywood, nobody goes off to write a book about it. And that is why the film-making fraternity is convinced he has either lost his marbles, or perhaps, the man’s head is just getting too big for his shoulders. [Link]

As if blowing your own horn were rare in high school yearbooks, and egotism were an oddity among successful directors:

… megalomania already manifested itself back when Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan - he gave himself the name of Night later - was editor of his high school yearbook in 1988. In it, he created an ad featuring himself on the cover of a Time magazine cover with the headline: “Best Director. NYU Grad Takes Hollywood By Storm.” [Link]

What you’re seeing is the rare confluence of the film fraternity turning on one of its own, and the critics gleefully loosing their scrunts on him. It’s payback for provocation.

Lady in the Water, which for better or for worse is a typical Shyamalan movie (I’m not a huge fan, aside from The Sixth Sense), scored only 24% on Rotten Tomatoes. That’s a politically-distorted joke — that’s Plan 9 From Outer Space territory. Even Snakes on a Plane and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift scored higher at 67% and 36% respectively. And LitW is the only ambitious, thought-provoking movie of the lot.

It calls into question either the scale or the motive. The latter is clear — Shyamalan shot himself in the foot with his in-film shot at critics.

Related posts: Sideways, The heat of Night, Sakharam Shyamalan, Movies and sausages, Huffington Toast (updated)