Joaquin Phoenix and M Night Shyamalan Reuniting on Mystery Movie
Eleven years since they last worked together, it’s been announced that director M Night Shyamalan and actor Joaquin Phoenix are teaming up again.
The Wrap revealed that the duo have signed on for a new, unnamed film to be produced by Jason Blum, current king of horror thanks to the huge success of his company Blumhouse.
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Beyond this, nothing has been revealed about the film - but given the track record of the key players, it seems fair to assume it’ll be on the spooky side.
The actor and director were both at their hottest when they first teamed up. Shyamalan had conquered the box office, earned a slew of award nods and rejuvenated the horror genre with 1999′s ‘The Sixth Sense,’ whilst Phoenix had broken through in a big way with 2000′s ‘Gladiator.’
The pair got together on 2002′s sci-fi chiller ‘Signs,’ in which Phoenix portrayed the younger brother of Mel Gibson’s bereaved ex-priest whose farmhouse home comes under attack by aliens.
This proved successful enough for Shyamalan and Phoenix to team up again on 2004′s ‘The Village.’ However, this unusual folk horror seemed to mark the beginning of the end of the director’s golden period, earning poor reviews and turning off audiences.
All the films Shyamalan has directed since - modern fairy tale ‘Lady in the Water,’ environmental horror ‘The Happening,’ and the would-be blockbusters ‘The Last Airbender’ and ‘After Earth’ - have proved critical and commercial duds.
Phoenix has also gone through his difficult times, having jeopardised his career with 2010′s unorthodox semi-documentary ‘I’m Still Here’ - but with the subsequent success of ‘The Master,’ ‘Her’ and ‘Inherent Vice,’ he would seem to have recovered.
Will this new film - or Shyamalan’s next, ‘The Visit,’ also produced by Jason Blum - see the director enjoy a similar resurgence? We can but wait and see.
‘The Visit’ opens on 11 September.
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Picture Credit: Touchstone/Disney, WENN
