M. Night Shyamalan Wants To Develop An UNBREAKABLE TV Series
M. Night Shyamalan has been talking about doing an Unbreakable sequel for years. It's the one thing that I might actually be excited about seeing him make, but now he's looking at the possibility of developing it as a TV series instead.
The filmmaker currently has a suspense series on FOX called Wayward Pines, which is apparently doing really well. I don't think the show is really that good, and didn't make it past the pilot episode. While talking to IGN about the new series, Shyamalan was asked if he'd be open to bringing Unbreakable to the small screen, and this was his reply:
"As a way continue the story, yes. That would [interest me]. I really love where we are. Could you do a six-episode Unbreakable series on Netflix or HBO? Yeah! That's cool. I even had an idea of doing a story that goes in one form, and a second part that's in another form, and a third one's in a different form. You never do the same form. It would be like, movie, then, let's say, cable, to TV, whatever, and then a play; it goes straight online, and it finishes like that. It's in four different forms, and it never goes back to the old one. It could be kind of cool."
I think that's an interesting idea that could work really well. He went on to talk about how TV is changing the entertainment industry:
"I think it's interesting that content has changed. The form is now blurring, where we used to say it had to be two hours or episodic. Episodic meant that at each commercial break you had to do this or that. Those were the two forms, that's it. Now, that's already changed. The bizarreness of sequels in film is a little bit of what's going on with the power of TV. Once you've created a world and struggles and characters that we now connect with, again, that's where the story begins. So that's why sequels have become so powerful. In the old days, it just meant you were gouging them for more money. But it's almost like every movie now wants to live, and we want to stay with the characters we've come to love. Maybe it's where we are post-9/11 -- people have a lot of theories about this, by the way -- why it's harder to make original stuff. We're scared to invest in something new. That's why TV is exploding. But because of this interesting psychological need from the audience and the filmmaker, eight episodes of True Detective, like, that's enough for me. It satiated me. I wouldn't have wanted to see the film version of it, and to be honest I don't want to see five seasons of it. But I felt it. It's sticking to me."
I could see Unbreakable as a TV series, but I think I'd rather see a feature film sequel that featured Bruce Willis and maybe Samuel L. Jackson reprising their roles. I just don't see them making the leap to TV anytime soon. But who knows, maybe they would do it for Unbreakable.
Patton Oswalt gave an amazing story pitch for Unbreakable 2 and 3 that perfectly wraps up the story. I think Shyamalan should use these ideas if he ever ends up continuing the story. You can watch him pitch those movie ideas here.