Just weeks after being named Worst Director at Hollywood's most undesirable awards ceremony the Golden Raspberries, M Night Shyamalan has announced his return. But rather than being demoted to the B-movie circuit, the filmmaker's next project will see him direct a bona fide A-lister, Will Smith, as well as the actor's son, Jaden.
The Indian-American filmmaker, known for his love of twist endings, was once the toast of Tinsel Town as the writer-director behind The Sixth Sense, but in recent years he has suffered a dramatic career decline with a string of critically reviled movies. Things seemed to reach a new low last year with the $150 million (Dh550.9m) kids fantasy, The Last Airbender, which scooped no fewer than five Razzies.
According to Columbia Pictures, the currently untitled Smith-starring science-fiction film is set "1,000 years into the future, a young boy navigates an abandoned and sometimes scary Earth to save himself and his estranged father after their ship crashes".
Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith will also produce the film.
Jaden, who appeared in last year's Karate Kid remake, has co-starred with his father once before, in 2006's Oscar-nominated The Pursuit of Happyness. Shyamalan, who has co-written the screenplay for the forthcoming film with Gary Whitta (The Book of Eli), said "the chance to make a scary, science-fiction film starring Jaden and Will is my dream project."
Born in Puducherry (formerly Pondicherry), India, before moving to Pennsylvania as a child, Manoj Nelliattu Shyamalan was reared on the films of Steven Spielberg and Alfred Hitchcock. "I was around 10 or 11 when Spielberg made all those amazing movies like ET, where a child has a belief and he makes adults believe in it," he told Time Out.
Adept with a High-8 camera from a young age, Shyamalan wrote, directed and edited more than 45 short films in his early years. The filmmaker released his first feature, Praying With Anger (in which he also played the story's protagonist) while still at New York University. His second outing as writer-director, the 1998 Rosie O'Donnell comedy-drama Wide Awake, passed largely unnoticed.
Everything changed the following year however, upon the release of The Sixth Sense. The supernatural thriller, starring Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment, was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and became famous for the line, "I see dead people."
While its successors, 2000's lo-fi superhero tale Unbreakable and 2002's philosophical alien invasion flick Signs, were also well-received, critics and audiences began to complain that Shyamalan's need to deliver jaw-dropping twists was making his stories feel increasingly contrived.
Within just a few years, the director had made 2004's quasi-period drama The Village; the 2006 fairy tale Lady in the Water and 2008's laughable disaster movie The Happening. All were panned and Shyamalan's stock fell dramatically. Homer Simpson said it best in an episode of the satirical television show, when he asked: "Who could my father be? Moleman? Mr. Burns? (gasps) M Night Shyamalan? That would be a twist worthy of his increasingly lousy films!"
But it was 2010's The Last Airbender that many believed would assign Shyamalan to the directorial scrap-heap for good. Adapted from a beloved Nickelodeon animated series about a world where different races of humans have the power to manipulate the elements, the film was criticised for its poor visual effects and 3D retrofitting. It was also condemned for the casting of white actors as the story's Asian protagonists.
"The Last Airbender is an agonising experience in every category I can think of and others still waiting to be invented," wrote the Chicago Sun-Times critic, Roger Ebert. "The laws of chance suggest that something should have gone right. Not here. It puts a nail in the coffin of low-rent 3D, but it will need a lot more coffins than that."
Ebert also expressed hope that the film's title would prove to be prescient.
So sullied had the Shyamalan brand become by the end of last summer, even the mention of his name had begun to cause negative reactions among prospective audience members. Trailers for the film Devil (based on a story created by the filmmaker, but not written or directed by him) featured the tagline "from the mind of M Night Shyamalan". The announcement reportedly provoked groaning and jeering in cinemas around the world.
Knowing that in just under 10 years the filmmaker has gone from one of Hollywood's brightest hopes to someone whose films are at best contrived and at worst inept, Smith's decision to entrust to Shyamalan not only his career, but also that of his son, must be seen as an unusual one.
"Why does he keep getting such high-profile work?" asked Simon Brew of the movie website Den of Geek. "The answer: he makes cash. It's that simple.
"In spite of the reviews that the likes of The Last Airbender, The Village and The Happening attracted, each has made money. Lots of money in some cases. Only Lady in the Water could really be classed in any sense as an outright commercial disappointment," he added.
Despite the derision of critics, The Last Airbender took almost $320m at the worldwide box office, more than twice the film's production budget. Perhaps it is simply Shyamalan's ability to deliver movies capable of packing cinemas that inspires Smith and the like - even if there are more empty seats towards the end of the film than there are at the beginning.
But maybe the down-on-his-luck director deserves one last chance. After all, the greatest criticism of The Last Airbender was levelled at the film's poor special effects and use of 3D. Shyamalan should rightly shoulder most of the burden for this, but perhaps not all.
What's more, Smith's reportedly hands-on approach to producing could help circumvent some of Shyamalan's bad habits and maybe even help to deliver the career turnaround he so badly needs.
Now that would be a twist worth waiting for.
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What is the FNC?
The Federal National Council is one of five federal authorities established by the UAE constitution. It held its first session on December 2, 1972, a year to the day after Federation.
It has 40 members, eight of whom are women. The members represent the UAE population through each of the emirates. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have eight members each, Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah six, and Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain have four.
They bring Emirati issues to the council for debate and put those concerns to ministers summoned for questioning.
The FNC’s main functions include passing, amending or rejecting federal draft laws, discussing international treaties and agreements, and offering recommendations on general subjects raised during sessions.
Federal draft laws must first pass through the FNC for recommendations when members can amend the laws to suit the needs of citizens. The draft laws are then forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration and approval.
Since 2006, half of the members have been elected by UAE citizens to serve four-year terms and the other half are appointed by the Ruler’s Courts of the seven emirates.
In the 2015 elections, 78 of the 252 candidates were women. Women also represented 48 per cent of all voters and 67 per cent of the voters were under the age of 40.
AUSTRALIA SQUAD
Tim Paine (captain), Sean Abbott, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Will Pucovski, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade, David Warner
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Based: Dubai Multi Commodities Centre
Number of employees: seven
Sector: e-learning
Funding stage: Pre-seed funding of Dh1.5m in 2017 and an initial seed round of Dh2m in 2019
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Co-founders: Elie Habib, Eddy Maroun
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A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
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- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
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Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
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Portugal 1
Ronaldo (4')
Morocco 0
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How tumultuous protests grew
- A fuel tax protest by French drivers appealed to wider anti-government sentiment
- Unlike previous French demonstrations there was no trade union or organised movement involved
- Demonstrators responded to online petitions and flooded squares to block traffic
- At its height there were almost 300,000 on the streets in support
- Named after the high visibility jackets that drivers must keep in cars
- Clashes soon turned violent as thousands fought with police at cordons
- An estimated two dozen people lost eyes and many others were admitted to hospital
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Current number of staff: 47
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
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Investment raised: $4 million
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Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
Dubai Rugby Sevens
November 30, December 1-2
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1.20pm, Pitch 4, v Malta Marauders
Friday, December 1:
9am, Pitch 4, v SBA Pirates
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Engine: 3.8-litre V6
Power: 295hp at 6,000rpm
Torque: 355Nm at 5,200rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 10.7L/100km
Price: Dh179,999-plus
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5