Normally you hear about this type of thing in passing, or mentioned in a news article (like this), but this time there’s an actual book that goes into one of the bigger creative differences disputes: between Disney and M. Night Shyamalan. The new book’s called “The Man Who Heard Voices: Or, How M. Night Shyamalan Risked His Career on a Fairy Tale”, and it talks about what it was like trying to get Disney to go with LADY IN THE WATER, and how long-term relationships went down the tubes afterward. Written by Micahel Bamberger, who had nothing but support from Shyamalan (it is, of course, his side of the story), the book basically documents how things went bad between the director and Disney production President Nina Jacobson, who has worked with Shyamalan on all of his previous films starting with THE SIXTH SENSE.
So what happened? How did it go from good to bad to worse? Why is Warner Bros. behind WATER and not Disney? In short… creative differences…
“You said it was funny; I didn’t laugh. You’re going to let a critic get attacked? They’ll kill you for that … Your part’s too big; you’ll get killed again … What’s with the names? Scrunt? Narf? Tartutic? Not working … Don’t get it … Not buying it. Not getting it. Not working.”
Straight from Jacobsons mouth (at least, according to the book), the fact that she ‘didn’t get it’, is what made Shyamalan walk. Did I have any idea any of this even happened, or that there was a dispute this large in nature? Nope, not until today… and do I care? No, not really. But you should check out the LA Times article even if you don’t care, because it’s an interesting read. It shows exactly what can go wrong when creative forces clash, and someone’s vision gets in the way of someone else making money.
Be sure to check out LADY IN THE WATER, only in theaters July 14th.