Lady in the Water

[Brian in Mesa]

Shyamalan Takes Lady to WB
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
March 24, 2005

M. Night Shyamalan will next write and direct the fantasy thriller Lady in the Water for Warner Bros. Pictures.

The movie centers on the superintendent of an apartment building who finds a rare type of sea nymph swimming in the apartment pool.

Production will begin in August on location in Philadelphia, for a release in July 2006.

Shyamalan's last four films - The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs and The Village - were distributed by Disney. The studio and Shyamalan discussed "Lady," but the two decided mutually to part ways on the project.

 

[Pariah]

M. Night's films are getting exponentially worse, IMO.

 

[Stout]

M. Night's films are getting exponentially worse, IMO.

What, you mean you didn't like 1984 in colonial times?

 

[Brian in Mesa]

Casting:

Sea nymph - Bryce Dallas Howard
Super - Paul Giamatti

Offers have been made, nothing conrete yet...

Warner Brothers plans a release date of July 21, 2006.

 

[Dan H]

A "rare type of sea nymph."

Sure, because everybody's seen blonde and brunette sea nymphs.

 

[Brian in Mesa]

Lady in the Water

Release Date: July 21, 2006
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Screenwriter: M. Night Shyamalan
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for some frightening sequences)
Website: Lady in the Water

Starring: Paul Giamatti, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jeffrey Wright, Bob Balaban, Freddy Rodriguez, Sarita Choudhury, Jared Harris, Bill Irwin

Plot Summary: In "Lady in the Water," a story originally conceived by writer-director M. Night Shyamalan for his children, a modest building manager named Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) rescues a mysterious young woman (Bryce Dallas Howard) from danger and discovers she is actually a narf, a character from a bedtime story who is trying to make the treacherous journey from our world back to hers. Cleveland and his fellow tenants start to realize that they are also characters in this bedtime story. As Cleveland falls deeper and deeper in love with the woman, he works together with the tenants to protect his new fragile friend from the deadly creatures that reside in this fable and are determined to prevent her from returning home.

 

[Ryanwb]

Whats a sea nympho?

 

[PortlandCardFan]

Whats a sea nympho?

Chicks that like to do it in the water.

On a sidenote, I saw the trailer for this and it looked mucho better than the lil' tidbits we were getting a few months ago.

 

[PHX 4 LIFE]

looks kindof lame but if its like 6th sense it should be awesome!

 

[Mike Olbinski]

Saw it yesterday...

I liked it...four out of the six people with us liked it, but the reviews have been pretty bad.

A good fairly tale type story, with a lot of neat moments...some very hilarious stuff with the movie critic in it, and some other things..

I liked it mainly because I know this story is something M. Night told to his kids, and it was a movie he was fighting to make, despite people wanting it changed when they first read it. He took it elsewhere to stick to his guns.

It's just more enjoyable watching something that a director/writer is passionate about, that is personal, then these churned out blockbusters all the time.

 

[DeAnna]

I saw it this weekend....it was OK, I guess. Kind of violent for a kid's bedtime story I would think.

A sea nymph in a pool?? C'mon! I didn't sense any attraction from Cleveland (the Super) towards the girl but it had some comical moments. Rico (from Six Feet Under) plays a wanna-be bodybuilder who only works n one side of his body, LoL!

I gave it a C-

 

[D-Dogg]

I liked the Village....it was sufficiently odd and nicely shot, with great acting.

I'll see Lady at some point....if only for Bryce Dallas Howard who was fantastic in the Village.

 

[Chaplin]

I liked the Village....it was sufficiently odd and nicely shot, with great acting.

I'll see Lady at some point....if only for Bryce Dallas Howard who was fantastic in the Village.

WOW. Just WOW.

The Village was awful. Not even approaching "good" bad, it was terrible. I'm wondering what you think was so nicely shot about it. It was pretty bland and uninteresting. Bryce Dallas Howard was the only bright spot in the whole movie, although it was a bit contrived to send out the only blind character into the forest to save Joaquin's character.

SPOILER:

The entire premise is ridiculous. Paying off the government to not fly planes above the village? You've got to be kidding me. This movie is one of a select few DVDs even I wouldn't buy. Came very close to being the only movie I've ever walked out of.

 

[D-Dogg]

It wasn't the best movie I've ever seen, but far from the worst. It was good enough to hold my attention, though it was contrived plot wise and the monsters sucked, I liked the acting of Howard, Phoenix and Brody.

I thought the shots were interesting because they had no color...but yet they still had some interesting framing of things and kept my attention. Almost like man-made sepia tone...it was odd. I liked it. When

Spoiler

Brody stabs Phoenix

I think that is shot very well...I was suprised the first time I saw that.

A lot of people dislike this movie because they felt they were cheated that it said it was 1800's or that it was billed as a scary movie. It was neither scary nor in the 1800s, and yes the airplane thing was pretty stupid. But I'll withhold belief if I like anything about the characters, and I liked the triangle of Brody, Phoenix and Howard. I also liked the fact that you can't escape violence no matter where you go, and its part of the human condition.

Anyone who really really likes this movie or really really hates this movie is biased in some way, IMO. I think it's a decent flick with some good acting and bad plot contrivances. It's no Battlefield Earth.

 

[Chaplin]

It wasn't the best movie I've ever seen, but far from the worst. It was good enough to hold my attention, though it was contrived plot wise and the monsters sucked, I liked the acting of Howard, Phoenix and Brody.

I thought the shots were interesting because they had no color...but yet they still had some interesting framing of things and kept my attention. Almost like man-made sepia tone...it was odd. I liked it. When

Spoiler

Brody stabs Phoenix

I think that is shot very well...I was suprised the first time I saw that.

A lot of people dislike this movie because they felt they were cheated that it said it was 1800's or that it was billed as a scary movie. It was neither scary nor in the 1800s, and yes the airplane thing was pretty stupid. But I'll withhold belief if I like anything about the characters, and I liked the triangle of Brody, Phoenix and Howard. I also liked the fact that you can't escape violence no matter where you go, and its part of the human condition.

Anyone who really really likes this movie or really really hates this movie is biased in some way, IMO. I think it's a decent flick with some good acting and bad plot contrivances. It's no Battlefield Earth.

At least I can laugh at Battlefield Earth.

Seriously though, the message is pretty blatant, but M. Night has progressively gotten worse. His problem is that he'll always have to live up to Sixth Sense. His bigger problem, however, is that he doesn't even seem to be trying. His scripts are terrible, and the acting in his movies is getting worse. I can't get how you think that Joaquin Phoenix was good in The Village. He barely did anything except have that puppy dog look on his face all the time. As for Brody, I loved him in the Pianist and even in King Kong to an extent, but I'm tired of good actors getting kudos for playing "disabled" characters and being considered great. As far as I'm concerned, he overplayed the role and is nowhere near the quality we saw from Tom Hanks or Dustin Hoffman.

IMO, of course, Laker Lover.

 

[D-Dogg]

I can't get how you think that Joaquin Phoenix was good in The Village. He barely did anything except have that puppy dog look on his face all the time.

Have you seen him in Walk the Line yet? He's a powerful personality who can play meek very well. I thought he conveyed a strong meekness (if that is possible) very well.

I can see the mailing it in mindset regarding M Night, and I agree he isn't trying to live up to his Sixth Sense success (which isn't even his best movie...Unbreakable is). I liked the period acting in this movie, which is probably one of the reasons I like it and you don't.

Re: Brody...you just compared his role with freaking Rain Man and Forrest Gump. Two of the best disabled performances ever. I'd put DiCaprio in Gilbert Grape up there too. Brody was nowhere near that good yet I don't think he overacted it.

Looks like I liked the movies acting, and you hated it, and that's the difference between our perspectives on it for the most part.


IMO Suns Fan.

 

[jenna2891]

i'm pretty sure if i saw this movie all i would think of the entire time is vince vaughn singing along with the wedding band in old school.

 

[Bada0Bing]

I just watched it. I didn’t like it all. I just never got interested in the story so the movie just got more and more boring.

 

[Covert Rain]

I thought the movie was OK. I just had a hard time watching the movie, knowing it was an M.Night movie. I think I might have liked it more if I had never seen another M.Night movie before. My expectations were higher and this was such a departure from the type of movie I liked to see from him.

If you watch the extras, this was more of a labor of love for him. It was a favorite fairy tale he told his kids and decided to make a movie out of it. I think this was one of those personal projects that he wanted to do regardless of what the fans or critics thought.

I just hope he gets back to making good films again.

 

[Beaver]

Holy crap, this movie was terrible.

 

[UncleChris]

Saw it yesterday...

I liked it...four out of the six people with us liked it, but the reviews have been pretty bad.

A good fairly tale type story, with a lot of neat moments...some very hilarious stuff with the movie critic in it, and some other things..

I liked it mainly because I know this story is something M. Night told to his kids, and it was a movie he was fighting to make, despite people wanting it changed when they first read it. He took it elsewhere to stick to his guns.

It's just more enjoyable watching something that a director/writer is passionate about, that is personal, then these churned out blockbusters all the time.

Ditto. 2.99 out of 5.