"What?!" you cry. "M. Night Shyamalan sold out way before After Earth! What are you talking about, you ill-informed waste of space?" And although there's no denying the fact that this failed Steven Spielberg hasn't made a truly good movie in a long time, you'd be wrong: he didn't technically "sell out" until he agreed to director After Earth, which starred Will Smith and son Jaden and was - for all intents and purposes - bloody awful. Thing is, up until After Earth, M. Night Shyamalan had at least directed his own material. And then, presumably exasperated by the fact that everybody hated everything that he did, he agreed to helm After Earth, which was based on a script written almost entirely by - phew! - somebody else. If it all went wrong, they could take the heat, right? Well, partly. The movie was lambasted by the critics, most of whom were peeved at both the screenplay (credited to both Shyamalan and one Gary Whitta, who wrote most of the thing, with a story credit going to Will Smith). It's also notable that the marketing opted to leave out the fact that Shyamalan was behind the camera. Anyway, despite the fact that Shyamalan has remained a cinematic embarrassment for about an age, it wasn't until 2013 that he officially sold out and became - pretty much - a director-for-hire. Well... done?
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
