Apparently, we do not have to “ask once more later” a few potential mission based mostly across the truth-telling youngsters’s toy the Magic 8 Ball, as a result of M. Night time Shyamalan is directing a forthcoming Magic 8 Ball TV present.
In an Instagram publish, Shyamalan, whose main different TV enterprise, Apple’s “Servant,” led to 2023, posted a photograph of the titular toy on high of a script for a Magic 8 Ball TV pilot directed by him and written by Brad Falchuk. For the uninitiated, Falchuk is greatest referred to as a frequent collaborator of Ryan Murphy who’s labored on reveals like “Glee,” “American Horror Story,” “Pose,” and “Scream Queens.”
“Been engaged on this for a pair years … Who’s in?” Shyamalan requested in his publish with the hashtags “#ItsCertain” and “Magic8Ball.” Now, I do know what you are considering, particularly should you watched the Emmy-winning comedy “The Studio” this 12 months: Is not this creatively bankrupt, even by Hollywood’s requirements? On the one hand, it’s, although a Magic 8 Ball film was floated again in 2019 underneath the Blumhouse Productions umbrella (there’s been no additional phrase on that, as of this writing) and although Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” film fairly famously grew to become an sudden crucial darling regardless of being based mostly on a toy. However, the concept of a Magic 8 Ball TV present is deeply and completely foolish, and for that actual cause, I feel my fellow Philly man Shyamalan is the right particular person to helm it.
M. Night time Shyamalan’s 2024 film Entice lastly proved that the filmmaker might be very, very humorous
Should you want proof {that a} Magic 8 Ball TV sequence may truly be enjoyable if it is directed by someone as intelligent as M. Night time Shyamalan, look no additional than “Entice,” the writer-director’s 2024 film that principally requested, “What if ‘Silence of the Lambs’ occurred at Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour?” (That is not conjecture on my half; Shyamalan stated that was his idea for the film, which rocks.) There isn’t any query that “Entice” is Shyamalan’s funniest film up to now. Regardless that the auteur has definitely exhibited a darkish humorousness all through his physique of labor, “Entice” is usually brazenly hilarious, significantly as a result of Josh Hartnett is so extremely good because the film’s central character (and essential villain) Cooper Abbott.
Underneath Shyamalan’s cautious path, Hartnett brings Cooper, a firefighter and a dad who additionally simply so occurs to be a Philadelphia-area serial killer dubbed “the Butcher,” totally to life — and since we be taught so early within the film that Cooper and the Butcher are one and the identical, the viewers will get to go alongside for the experience with him as he tries to evade authorities and concurrently shepherd his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) round a live performance held by pop star Girl Raven. (The pop star is, amusingly, performed by Shyamalan’s daughter Saleka Night time.) To name Cooper shifty is an enormous understatement, and Shyamalan actually has Hartnett lean all the way in which in to his strangeness, giving the film a delightfully heightened feeling that is each hysterically humorous and extremely unsettling. Shyamalan is a one-of-a-kind director who concocts motion pictures like “Entice,” so forgive me for saying that I am weirdly excited to see the place he’ll take this Magic 8 Ball mission.
In a post-Barbie toy film growth, a few of these tasks truly sound … unusually promising
Once more, should you, like me and so many different folks, watched and loved “The Studio,” which options a whole storyline a few horrible-sounding Kool-Assist film, that is all sounding and feeling somewhat bizarre and even kind of ominous. Is that this all Hollywood is anymore? As a substitute of simply rebooting stuff by slapping “younger” in entrance of a personality title like “Younger Sheldon,” are executives simply digging by way of packing containers of their outdated toys and greenlighting motion pictures and TV reveals based mostly on no matter they see? To an extent, yeah, they are doing that, significantly after the genuinely insane and fairly great success of 2023’s “Barbie.” Individuals had their doubts, however after Greta Gerwig produced a heartfelt spectacle centered round Barbie’s (Margot Robbie) journey of self-actualization and Ken’s (Ryan Gosling) ill-conceived flirtation with the patriarchy, “Barbie” made properly over a billion {dollars} and snagged a Greatest Image nomination on the Academy Awards. Toy motion pictures can work if an attention-grabbing director is behind them, apparently. (The A24 “Barney” film with Daniel Kaluuya on its artistic workforce additionally involves thoughts right here – fingers crossed for that one.)
I am of two minds about this. On one hand, if we’re utilizing the fictional Kool-Assist film for example, this all feels bizarre and dangerous. However I’ll mud off my optimist hat for only a second, although. On the different hand, these presumably terrible ideas are being handed to administrators who take large swings and refuse to play it protected; say what you’ll about M. Night time Shyamalan, however that man has by no means performed it protected, for higher (“Unbreakable”) and for worse (“The Taking place”). Possibly this Magic 8 Ball sequence will likely be horrible. Possibly it will be a enjoyable diversion. We will anticipate not less than one factor, although: one other large swing from Shyamalan’s delightfully twisted thoughts.
