Student Filmmakers - June 2008 - (Page 23) Scene from The Happening: Ashlyn Sanchez (as Jess) John Leguizamo (as Julian), and Mark Wahlberg (as Elliot Moore). late and I was in that hazy, half-asleep, halfawake zone. I saw this image of the highway with trees on either side when, all of us sudden, an entire plot to a movie erupted. The movie idea just came complete from beginning to end! It doesn’t happen to me that often, but I love when it does because it gives you a great confidence. Oftentimes, the process of birthing an idea into a useable form mimics how the process of making the movie will go and, to some extent, how the movie will be received, at least initially. I have to say that this was probably my easiest film so far. Even though this movie idea came easy to you, did you write many drafts of the screenplay? M. Night Shyamalan: Yeah, I did. I didn’t think I was going to but I ended up writing thirteen drafts. From your first draft to the thirteenth draft, did the film story change completely or were there elements that remained the same? M. Night Shyamalan: There are two fundamental things that changed. If I were to use comparisons to other movies, it went from an Independence Day structure – in terms of a very global event – to a Jurassic Park structure where they [the main characters] were trapped in a confined area; they couldn’t escape and had to survive. When that shift happened, it made it much more of a nightmare movie for me. June 2008 studentfilmmakers 2
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