the happening
Mark Wahlberg Thinks ‘SNL’ And Their Stupid Impression Of Him Can Suck It
4:05AM Seth | While we found Andy Samberg’s SNL impression of Mark Wahlberg as a sort of less-successful Dr. Doolittle overly preoccupied with sending his regards to farm animals’ mothers to be flat out hilarious, not everyone was as amused. For starters, there was Wahlberg himself, who was asked about the sketch several times on the Max Payne interview circuit. In the audio clip above, set to a series of modelling shots and film stills by Defamer videographer Molly McAleer, the Robitussin-abusing star of The Happening seems mildy irritated by the caricaturization: More »
Mark Wahlberg Talks To Pharmacists About Cough Syrup
6:40AM Seth | Deep gratitude to Videogum for guiding us to this scene from The Happening—M. Night Shyamalan’s surprisingly lucrative eco-thriller, originally pitched to skeptical studio execs as, “A lot like the The Birds, but instead it’s The Trees. Well, there’s birds in the trees, but they aren’t scary. I dunno, maybe they’re already dead. Hello? Are you still with me? What are you scribbling on that notepad? Do you want this or not, because there’s plenty of studios who do.” More »
8:00AM STV | Red-Headed Step-Fox: The cycle of abusive box-office analysis is renewed today at the Los Angeles Times, where John Horn broke out his calculator and a hot wire hanger in assessing this summer’s winners (Paramount, Warner Bros.) and losers (Sony, Disney). And, as per recent LAT tradition, 20th Century Fox was carted in for the grand finale, an epic pinata smackdown invoking everything from Meet Dave to Fox films’ Rotten Tomatoes ratings while once again completely ignoring the total! phenomenon! that was The Happening; at last glance, Manoj’s Mint broke $150 million worldwide, which isn’t exactly a flop under the circumstances. Anyway, there’s always next year, Horn writes, “when it will have sequels to X-Men and Ice Age and a film version of The A-Team.” And don’t forget Watchmen! Seriously, John — is this even your regular beat? [LAT] More »
Fox and Hallmark’s Greeting Card Empire: A Defamer Sneak Peek
9:25AM STV | Variety reports today that 20th Century Fox and Hallmark have reached a landmark licensing agreement granting the greeting card giant exclusive use of the studio’s library. While Hallmark has already issued cards for properties like Napoleon Dynamite and has its eye on major titles including Futurama and The Sound of Music, Defamer wrangled a hold of mockups for Hallmark’s “Turbulence at Fox ‘08″ line — a selection celebrating the beauty and joy of life through Fox’s bumpy year at the box-office. Follow the jump for a glimpse at warm greetings to come by way of Manoj Night Shyamalan, Eddie Murphy, The X-Files and others, and feel free to suggest your own heartfelt pairings as well. More »
Shyamalan’s ‘Night Chronicles’ to Teach Three Young Filmmakers the Art of Critically Reviled Pretentiousness
2:15AM Defamer Hollywood | If it’s true that he who laughs last laughs loudest, then we can hear M. Night Shyamalan this morning cackling all the way from his exurban Philadelphia enclave. Less than two months after his beleaguered The Happening hurdled billboard vandals and epidemic critical loathing on the way to wallet-fattenting coup, Cash-Machine Manoj announced a deal with financiers Media Rights Capital to develop and produce a slate of films through 2011. More »
Is M. Night Shyamalan Our Generation’s Ed Wood?
3:35AM Seth | It’s been two surprisingly brisk years since M. Night Shyamalan unleashed his last utterly unwatchable labour of love upon us. That would be Lady in the Water—a project Disney would successfully argue was legitimate grounds for divorce, and that would ultimately go on to teach Warner Bros. a valuable lesson about never making movies about swimming pool mermaids hunted by weredogs with grass fur, regardless of how compelling the pitch sounded in the room. During that time, the highly self-regarded auteur and sometimes-actor has been toiling on yet another secretive project: The Happening. More »
What’s the Last Thing You’d Say if M. Night Shyamalan Killed You Off?
8:50AM Defamer Hollywood | From last week’s revelations about his new “90-minute paranoia film” The Happening to his latest disclosure to USA Today that the movie is “terrifying,” M. Night Shyamalan is full of surprises for the first time in years, The concept, that is — not necessarily the execution. And as usual, his enticements have us asking all kinds of questions from the womb-like remove of our Manoj-free sanctum: More »
M. Night Shyamalan to Play Himself in Eagerly-Awaited ‘90-Minute Paranoia Movie’
7:20AM Defamer Hollywood | It’s been nearly two years since we last detected the whimperings of M. Night Shyamalan, who followed Lady in the Water (and the pouty studio exile that preceded it) with a quiet retreat to his shrouded, moated enclave in the Pennsylvania wilderness. But the LA Times’s Susan King smoked him out in advance of his return to theatres this summer, reviving the classic Manoj Twist for a readership craving every word: More »
