The Happening

[Vorph]

Originally Posted by Desidero

I can't seem to find how much money was spent making The Happening on the web. Does anyone know where to find this information? I can't imagine that they spent too much on this film considering there were very few special effects (which looked like shit) and everything else was just fans blowing plants. I'm pretty sure they used a helicopter to make the grass blow in the one scene where they are in the field too - the pattern looked exactly like a helicopter was flying overhead. Even if the film makes $15-20m in its first weekend and then tanks due to word of mouth, I wouldn't be surprised if he gets most/all of his money back (and maybe a small profit).

The Happening (2008) (Approx. $60M budget, which doesn't include advertising and a few other non-trivial things)

And it's already made an estimated $12.8M just on Friday. Word of mouth doesn't usually start to kill a movie until after the first weekend, so while it will definitely end up getting trounced by Hulk it's still going to be safely in the #2 spot. I doubt anyone will be pleased with the final tally when it's all said and done though, and they will likely be praying for DVD/Blu-ray to save their asses, but that's fairly common.

I don't believe it's true that Shyamalan invested his own money, certainly not solely. Just based on the companies listed as producers, that cannot be correct. Movies rarely make a profit on paper anyway, Hollywood has way too much "creative" accounting to allow that to happen.


PS--Burkex, Cloverfield was an excellent movie. It loses a lot in the move to the small screen though. :/

[Tred]

Originally Posted by Arbitrary

Allow me to quote myself from the page before.

I thought you might have been referring to other movies as well.

[Grave]

Has anyone considered the fact that M. Night may have been trying to make a "bad" film? Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending him, but the movie is so laughably bad that I don't see how it could be unintentional, yknow?

Stuff like the terrible overacting, the cough syrup joke (which was fucking hilarious - "I didn't even have a cough."), the random crazy-ass old lady screaming nonsense, nearly everything about it screamed "this is an homage to B-Movies".

I think Shyamalan will later come out and admit that he was just doing a throwback to these campy sci-fi movies and that the critics simply didn't understand that. Then again, it certainly wasn't marketed that way from the trailer. Still, when you're watching it, how could be anything but is my question.

[Arbitrary]

Cheesum Crackers!

[Cybsled]

The general idea of the movie is cool (Some force making people kill themselves), but good ideas can easily become shit when they aren't executing it properly (See: Reign of Fire).

[GrobbeeTrull2.0]

Originally Posted by Cybsled

good ideas can easily become shit when they aren't executing it properly (See: Reign of Fire).

You watch your mouth. Easily the best dragon-based movie to date.

[Ronne]

Originally Posted by GrobbeeTrull2.0

You watch your mouth. Easily the best dragon-based movie to date.

That really isn't saying much.

That movie sucked anyway, they're starving and living off a meager garden that there is internal turmoil about whether to harvest early to avoid starvation, but they have a gigantic fucking 21 hand horse sitting around that they haven't eaten?

[Burkex]

Originally Posted by Vorph

I don't believe it's true that Shyamalan invested his own money, certainly not solely.



PS--Burkex, Cloverfield was an excellent movie. It loses a lot in the move to the small screen though.

Shyamalan's Lost Sense - TIME

Basically the review says:

The box office told the tale of Shyamalan's success: The Sixth Sense grossed $294 million in North America; then, after a decent but detumescent $95 million for Unbreakable, he rebounded with $228 million for Signs (Gibson's star power helped) and $114 million for The Village — figures ranging from honorable to sensational, considering that he put his handsome movies together for about half what they'd have cost anyone else, anywhere else. Shyamalan makes all his films where he grew up, in the suburbs of Philadelphia. (He's the most prominent member of the Philadelphia school of filmmaking. In fact, so far as I know, he's the principal and the only student. There's no notable indie film scene in Philly, though movies from Rocky to National Treasure, Shooter and Baby Mama have used it as a location.)

A monumentally self-assured filmmaker, and a superb pitchman for his own projects, Shyamalan used his Sixth Sense clout to maintain his independence. Aside from making his elaborate movies at home, he'd play power games with the movie brass, allowing an executive just one afternoon to read his new script before returning it to him. That sort of bravado works only as long as the product sells. But when The Lady in the Water belly-flopped with $42 million domestic, Hollywood could finally say no to the wunderkind. The Happening is distributed by 20th Century Fox, but the list of seven or eight producers and executive producers in the credits suggests that Shyamalan raised the money for this one himself, and that he's no longer the independent golden boy — just another indie-film director scrambling for backers.



Thanks for the Cloverfield comment too. I'll still check it out I guess, sucks that I missed it on the Big Screen.



PS: lol someone gave me a -1 thingy cause I "spoiled" the Shawshank Redemption in this thread. NEWS FLASH that movie came out in 1994 (14 YEARS AGO!!!) and it is one of the best movies ever made. If you haven't seen it yet and you are reading a post on The Happening you have some major problems.

http://www.fohguild.org/forums/milli...ml#post1104527
"thanks for spoiling the ending, spoiler tags are there for a reason"
It came out 14 years ago dude. ROFLMAO. Hopefully I get -100 soon.

[Burkex]

Originally Posted by Erumaron

If you didn't see Andy escaping in Shawshank Redemption you fail at seeing foreshadowing. What do you think the figurine making was all about?

What does figurine making have to do with escaping? Nothing. Figurine making was a hobby for Andy. It was actually to make you believe that he had the rock hammer to carve rocks not to dig a hole out and escape. He actually had the rock hammer and rock blanket for that purpose but he didn't think about breaking out untill he saw how weak the wall was when he carved his name. AND you didn't see how weak the wall was until after he escaped. All his carvings were of chess pieces which were in his cell and the prison library. You are wrong dude. There is no way that you deducted that he was escaping because he carved figurines. Once again I call BULLSHIT!

[Arbitrary]

The book (novela, part of Different Seasons) is essentially identical to the film. Anyone who would make a claim that it was obvious Andy was going to mistake is making a bad decision for bad reasons and are merely getting lucky with their guess.

Between the nature of the author and the way the story is presented, and the way the movie is presented, there is no reason to expect a happy ending. Going "lol, prison movie" is of no value.

[hootie2]

You watch your mouth. Easily the best dragon-based movie to date

Reign of Fire?

What about Dragonslayer, or The Hobbit?

Hell even dungeons and dragons was better.

[Desx]

Joe dirt is one of the funniest-original movies of all time. It is in my top 10. The quotes are classic.

[Aegdaien]

Originally Posted by Grave

Has anyone considered the fact that M. Night may have been trying to make a "bad" film? Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending him, but the movie is so laughably bad that I don't see how it could be unintentional, yknow?

Stuff like the terrible overacting, the cough syrup joke (which was fucking hilarious - "I didn't even have a cough."), the random crazy-ass old lady screaming nonsense, nearly everything about it screamed "this is an homage to B-Movies".

I think Shyamalan will later come out and admit that he was just doing a throwback to these campy sci-fi movies and that the critics simply didn't understand that. Then again, it certainly wasn't marketed that way from the trailer. Still, when you're watching it, how could be anything but is my question.

NO.

If you want the movie that you just described, see The Mist. It's an excellent throwback to a B level sci fi movie, but is done correctly (i.e. it doesn't suck shit). The Happening was the worst movie I've seen in theaters in at least 5 years, maybe more. The script and the acting were just terrible, combined with the fact there was no twist and the ending was given away (and called by all 3 of us in our group) in the first 5 minutes of the movie. I gave the movie a new title when they went to the nursery:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Revenge of the Trees

[AladainAF]

First movie I've ever seen where most of the people that actually stayed in the theater (alot walked out) actually booed when it was over.

Seriously this movie was an epic waste of money.

[Erumaron]

Originally Posted by Burkex

What does figurine making have to do with escaping? Nothing. Figurine making was a hobby for Andy. It was actually to make you believe that he had the rock hammer to carve rocks not to dig a hole out and escape. He actually had the rock hammer and rock blanket for that purpose but he didn't think about breaking out untill he saw how weak the wall was when he carved his name. AND you didn't see how weak the wall was until after he escaped. All his carvings were of chess pieces which were in his cell and the prison library. You are wrong dude. There is no way that you deducted that he was escaping because he carved figurines. Once again I call BULLSHIT!

Sigh, not that it's worth it considering how retarded your posts in this thread have been...but I'll download/rewatch the movie and jot down some of the subtle hints for you.