10 Hollywood Stars That Let Instant Success Go To Their Heads

3. M. Night Shyamalan

Early Success: It's a familiar story by now. Feted by the media to become the next big thing in Hollywood, Shyamalan first few films certainly lived up to expectations. The Sixth Sense was a revelation on release, with its twist ending immediately becoming an iconic cinematic moment, resulting in six Oscar nominations (though no wins). His follow-up, Unbreakable, was low-key by comparison, but inarguably another fine film, deviating from the standard superhero format and branching out into something entirely different - again turning the twist ending into an art form in itself. What Happened Next? Signs was a decent movie, though perhaps not as well executed as what went before it. Since then, Shyamalan has been on a firmly downward trajectory, as each release associated with his name seems to claw the title of 'worst Shyamalan film' from the previous movies' hands. The Village and The Lady In The Water are both poor but the mix of astonishingly bad acting, writing, and, well, everything in The Last Airbender and After Earth takes the biscuit. Much of this decline in standards can be attributed to Shyamalan's tendency to believe his own hype. Around the time of The Village a documentary of Shyamalan appeared titled The Buried Secret Of M. Night Shymalan. The film claimed to uncover the director's dark past, and featured the man himself storming of screen and withdrawing his consent from filming. Ultimately it was revealed Shyamalan had authorised the documentary as a publicity stunt in order to cultivate the 'Shyamalan Brand'. It wasn't easy to take him seriously again after this.