Entertainment Weekly: Airbender preview
Got this from Last Airbender Fans Online:
Entertainment Weekly released their Summer Movie Preview issue this week, and included inside is an awesome sneak peak at this summer’s martial-arts epic, The Last Airbender.
"The director M. Night Shyamalan has a supernatural knack for casting kids. He coaxes performances that feel real, even as the kids in question see dead people, or hear aliens on the roof.
His latest, The Last Airbender, is unlike anything he's ever directed. It's not an unnerving thriller with a twist ending, but an epic fanasy and (hopefully) the first part of a trilogy. Still, The Last Airbender has a spiritual tint, just as The Sixth Sense, Signs, and all Shyamalan's movies do. And if the film works, it'll be because its young cast does a lot of heavy lifting: busting out some tricky martial arts; fighting in battles where air, water, earth, and fire are weapons; and delivering us from evil, amen.
As Shyamalan says of his star, newcomer Noah Ringer, "It's very difficult for a 12-year-old to carry an action movie." Shyamalan adapted the film from Nickelodeon's animated show Avatar: The Last Airbender. (He had to drop the first part of the title--seems someone else is using it.) Ringer plays Aang, who must unite the Air, Water, and Earth nations against the genocidal Fire Lord. Aang is aided by a spirited girl (Nicola Peltz) and her brother (Twilight'sJackson Rathbone), and hunted by a disgraced Fire Prince (Slumdog Millionaire's Dev Patel).
Last year, on the set, Shyamalan sounded both elated ("That they'd let me make such a diverse, Buddhist, tent-pole summer movie - it's unbelievable!) and jittery ("Yes, I'm nervous. I'm scared to death, which is a prerequisite for being a director; I think.").
Now that the film is nearly finished, he's back to his old, upbeat self: "Look, it's gonna sound biased coming coming from me, so take it with a grain of salt - but it's my best movie." Shyamalan credits the young cast for the film's heart.
Edit: the last paragraph of the article got cut off for some reason. Here's the rest:
Shyamalan credits the young cast for the film's heart. Of Peltz, who's 15, Shyamalan says, "I'm probably a poor director to direct her because I think she's just amazing." And as for Ringer, now 13: "He cares about justice and human rights - he's literally incapable of hurting another human being." But when evil is on the march? "He's a brilliant martial artist and he's ready to fight."
Entertainment Weekly released their Summer Movie Preview issue this week, and included inside is an awesome sneak peak at this summer’s martial-arts epic, The Last Airbender.
"The director M. Night Shyamalan has a supernatural knack for casting kids. He coaxes performances that feel real, even as the kids in question see dead people, or hear aliens on the roof.
His latest, The Last Airbender, is unlike anything he's ever directed. It's not an unnerving thriller with a twist ending, but an epic fanasy and (hopefully) the first part of a trilogy. Still, The Last Airbender has a spiritual tint, just as The Sixth Sense, Signs, and all Shyamalan's movies do. And if the film works, it'll be because its young cast does a lot of heavy lifting: busting out some tricky martial arts; fighting in battles where air, water, earth, and fire are weapons; and delivering us from evil, amen.
As Shyamalan says of his star, newcomer Noah Ringer, "It's very difficult for a 12-year-old to carry an action movie." Shyamalan adapted the film from Nickelodeon's animated show Avatar: The Last Airbender. (He had to drop the first part of the title--seems someone else is using it.) Ringer plays Aang, who must unite the Air, Water, and Earth nations against the genocidal Fire Lord. Aang is aided by a spirited girl (Nicola Peltz) and her brother (Twilight'sJackson Rathbone), and hunted by a disgraced Fire Prince (Slumdog Millionaire's Dev Patel).
Last year, on the set, Shyamalan sounded both elated ("That they'd let me make such a diverse, Buddhist, tent-pole summer movie - it's unbelievable!) and jittery ("Yes, I'm nervous. I'm scared to death, which is a prerequisite for being a director; I think.").
Now that the film is nearly finished, he's back to his old, upbeat self: "Look, it's gonna sound biased coming coming from me, so take it with a grain of salt - but it's my best movie." Shyamalan credits the young cast for the film's heart.
Edit: the last paragraph of the article got cut off for some reason. Here's the rest:
Shyamalan credits the young cast for the film's heart. Of Peltz, who's 15, Shyamalan says, "I'm probably a poor director to direct her because I think she's just amazing." And as for Ringer, now 13: "He cares about justice and human rights - he's literally incapable of hurting another human being." But when evil is on the march? "He's a brilliant martial artist and he's ready to fight."