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By Daniel Fierman
Daniel Fierman
Daniel Fierman is a staff writer for EW

Ouch. What else can you say? Just four years after Newsweek anointed him ''The Next Spielberg,'' M. Night Shyamalan watched as Lady in the Watertook a swan dive into an empty pool. His dark fairy tale, starring Paul Giamatti and Bryce Dallas Howard, lapped up a mere $18 million last weekend, making it the worst wide opening of Shyamalan's career and a virtual lock to become his lowest-grossing film since The Sixth Sense, perhaps by as much as $50 million. It only gets grimmer. Not only was Lady critically savaged, but CinemaScore testing data indicate that audiences didn't dig the flick, which dropped like a stone from Friday to Sunday. (By the way, if you're in the market for a movie exec, ring up Nina Jacobson: The ex-Disney production chief spotted this disaster early and told Shyamalan exactly what she thought. Naturally, she was fired last week.)

So what should Shyamalan do? It's no secret that the 35-year-old director has become better known for relentless self-promotion than his considerable talent. Now that he's stumbled, the long knives will be out. All the more reason, then, that he should take some time off. Once this storm subsides, we suggest Shyamalan wrest control of Yann Martel's award-winning novel The Life of Pi back from Jean-Pierre Jeunet. The project offers everything he needs. High prestige factor? Check. No supernatural monsters? Check. A script written by someone other than Monsieur M. Night Shyamalan? Check. And while he licks his wounds in the meantime, the director might do well to remember that even Spielberg made a little movie called Hook.


Posted Jul 28, 2006 | Published in issue #889 Aug 04, 2006 | Order Article Reprints