M.Night Shyamalan's latest script, "The Happening" has been approved for production by 20th Century Fox (NWS-A).
The film is a thriller that Shyamalan wrote and will also direct. It will be shot in Philadelphia this August, while casting for the film will begin in the summer of this year. The studio has target the release for June of 2008. Tom Rothman, Fox Filmed Entertainment CEO and chairman led the way on the deal.
Originally the script was rejected by all the majors as it wasn't strong enough for them. Shyamalan said that it didn't particularly bother him that he didn't get a deal the first time around.
He did say though that the input from various studio executives helped him to make the adjustments needed to green light the film.
Rothman was interested in an edgier version of the project, which was attractive to Shyamalan.
"Tom felt strongly about making this my first R-rated picture," Shyamalan said. "We talked about trying to get the kind of intensity that is present in 'Silence of the Lambs,' and the kind that Guillermo del Toro got in `Pan's Labyrinth.' The impact of the beautiful things in that movie wouldn't have landed as strongly if the film had not been R rated."
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