Well, what an unexpected development of events. It appears Apple will bring in M. Night Shyamalan to produce an original series for their Apple TV platform. According to Variety, he will be joining 24: Legacy writer, Tony Basgallop, in developing a 10 episode physiological thriller. Not much information is known about the cast, plot, or even release date for the upcoming series, but Shyamalan himself is set to direct the first episode.
This new series on Apple TV will be produced by Shyamalan’s Blinding edge pictures and will have Ashwin Rajan, Jason Blumenthal, Todd Black and Steve Tisch as executive producers, with Taylor Latham serving as co-executive producer.
Although known for directing thrillers that contained shocking twists, such as The Sixth Sense (1999) and Unbreakable (2000), this will be M. Night’s second venture into television. He had previously been an executive producer on the Fox series Wayward Pines, a show that was recently cancelled after two seasons.
This is a very good approach for Apple, considering Shyamalan is currently in the midst of a filmmaking renaissance, or should I say, Shyamaissance?
Once considered to be the next big director in Hollywood, M. Night Shyamalan faced a tremendous fall from grace. The last twelve years of his filmmaking career pumped out colossal disasters such as Lady in the Water (2006), The Happening (2008), and, possibly one of the greatest insults to nerdom ever, The Last Airbender (2010).
The once-promising director had become the laughing stock of Tinseltown, but has recently shown signs of a comeback. His 2015 film, The Visit, received mixed reviews but wasn’t as massively bad as his previous works. It was generally considered a step up, albeit a small one, compared to his last efforts. 2017 saw an even greater step in the right direction thanks to the release of his psychological horror-thriller, Split, a film that was well received by critics and will have a sequel, Glass, scheduled for a 2019 release.
Hopefully, he will keep the momentum going with the upcoming Apple TV series as well.
