10 Movie Dreams That Died In 2019

7. M. Night Shyamalan's Dream Of Repeating His Early-Career Hot Streak

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Blumhouse

After kicking off his Hollywood career with a chain of hit original films (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs), M. Night Shyamalan got drunk on his own hype and destroyed his reputation by churning out some of the most nonsensical, pretentious guff to ever grace 21st century cinema screens (The Lady in the Water, The Happening, The Last Airbender).

The filmmaker clearly thought that he was untouchable, but came crashing back down to Earth with the poor critical and commercial results of his movies released between 2006 and 2013. From here, the Shyamalan camp went quiet for well over a year, but the director came out swinging with the release of The Visit in 2015, a surprisingly effective found-footage horror flick with shades of Shyamalan's earlier brilliance.

He followed that up with Split, a wildly entertaining horror-thriller with a powerhouse James McAvoy performance. Shyamalan was back! Everyone was excited about this guy again, and he himself probably thought that he was about to pull off one of the greatest comeback stories in Hollywood history, if only he could stick the landing with his next film, Glass, a movie that linked back to his glory days.

Unfortunately, the movie was met with a mixed-to-negative response, not quite the result that many had hoped for, and for Shyamalan himself, another reminder that he couldn't just coast by on the appreciation for his early work.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.