M. Night Shyamalan is known as a genius with the camera. His stories are famously thorough and haunting, capturing the attention of his audience and making the world around him disappear. Nothing shows this better than the Unbreakable Series. Starting in 2000 with Unbreakable, He created an immersive world that had a rocky start.
What many people don’t know, however, is that the second film in the series, Share, When the film was being made, Shyamalan didn’t tell anyone that there was going to be a sequel. The way he managed to get the rights to his character and leak the information to the studio was quite interesting, to say the least.
M. Night Shyamalan wanted to create a coherent story
Towards the end of 2016 Share, Bruce Willis David Dunn makes a famous cameo appearance, making it clear that the film is set in the same universe as the 2000 film. Unbreakable. This was never mentioned during the film’s marketing phase, and fans who had seen the first film were left to piece together the puzzle for the world.
During an interview with GQM. Night Shyamalan has revealed exactly how this came about. It seems that James McAvoy’s character was originally supposed to be part of Willis’ film. Since these are two characters who met and interacted with each other, their stories should be intertwined and they should be featured in one cohesive film.
The original outline of Unbreakable called for Split, so it became a very long film.
It was way too big and sprawling, so I decided to take that character out and play the first act as Unbreakable.
However, the director realized that the story was getting far too long and he would have to shorten it to Dunn’s story. When it came time for him to make the second film, he decided to get rid of all the security that producing a sequel could bring.
What happens if I make a sequel but don’t tell anyone it’s a sequel?
I secretly went to Disney and asked, “Could I have the rights to the character David Dunn, just for a little cameo, a little Easter egg?” They said yes, and I didn’t even tell Universal.
He didn’t tell Universal Pictures about his plans and decided to quietly secure the rights to Dunn’s character from Disney. Interestingly, they agreed and gave him what he needed for the film.
M. Night Shyamalan’s deception
Although M. Night Shyamalan’s plan for Buried could have earned him a lot of praise from the studio, but he decided to keep quiet about it. He didn’t show the studio the end of the script and kept his plans secret until the film was shown. When the executives watched the film, they saw the scene with Bruce Willis in the film and were quite surprised by what they saw.
So the script that I showed them and sold them didn’t have the ending in it.
Although the idea was excellent in every way, those in charge were more concerned about whether Shyamalan had the right to add a character that belonged to another studio. Since he had permission from Disney, everything was fine and he could do whatever he wanted with David Dunn’s character.
What makes the whole situation all the more interesting is the fact that Shyamalan was hesitant to shoot something in the same universe after Unbreakable poor audience reaction. Fortunately, he prevailed and audiences got a series of films from a director who doesn’t like sequels.
All films from the Unbreakable Series are available to stream on Prime Video.
