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Now, Gothamist hasn't been paying too much attention to The Village, the new M. Night Shyamalan film due out this summer, but we are fascinated by the attempt by the Sci-Fi Channel to create buzz by saying that the M. Night had "quit" the behind-the-scenes documentary about him and the film they were shooting. Jeffrey Wells from Hollywood Elsewhere noted a story by AP writer David Bauder (picked up Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) that looked at the controversy with M. Night walking off and refusing to cooperate anymore on the doc, which was attempting to get at a "buried secret" - article complete with quotes from the filmmakers, Calum Greene and the Sci-Fi channel. Wells then received an email from Phil Villarreal, film critic at the Arizona Daily Star, that said the doc was "mockumentary no more authentic than BEST IN SHOW and part of a very smart marketing push for THE VILLAGE"; then Wells got in touch with Bauder, who also started to realize he'd been served, all the while the Sci-Fi Channel refused to return Wells' calls. Bauder heard from the Sci-Fi Channel, who admitted it was a hoax (see Bauder's follow-up here from the Philadelphia Inquirer), with Sci-Fi president saying it was a guerilla marketing scheme "gone too far." Note to all big companies: Guerilla marketing schemes can be dangerous. Just because a bunch of kids with a camcorder, shaky camera work, and friends with websites can do guerilla doesn't mean you can, too.
The hilarious thing is that on the Sci-Fi website for the documentary, there are links to other papers noting how M. Night suddenly took away access, but no links (natch) to anything to reveals the true story. Wells ends his thoughts on The Village wanna-be buzz with:
I would be lying if I didn't admit that this episode has totally pissed me off, and that I would love to repay the favor by trashing THE VILLAGE any which way I can. I'm not going to say it's not a good film if I think otherwise after seeing it. But I think this episode should be read as a big green light by all entertainment journalists to dump on THE VILLAGE in any way possible. You know....because it'll feel good.Ah, sweet revenge. Gothamist has seen trailers for The Village, but it just looks like The Crucible with some aliens and some paint. Anyone know anything else? And one of the co-directors of the non-controversial documentary is Nathaniel Kahn, who directed the Oscar-nominated My Architect about his father, Louis I. Kahn.
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Anyone who got a look at the commercial for the "documentary" could pretty much tell the show was a fake. There was something clearly phony about the way everyone on screen was talking. It's hard to describe, so I'll just say that they sounded like actors who were acting.
About an hour ago, crossing Houston and going North on B'way, I saw 3 figures cloaked (a la The Village) in denim hoods. If that isn't weird enough - they were walking their bicycles. Fortunately, I did not get close enough to read the sign hanging on the front.
The promo was kind of obvious - it was a Blair Witch scheme. When has SciFi ever been the ground-breaking news station? I love the station, but I think I would've heard SOMETHING about this elsewhere in the mainstream/pop media. As for the flick, rumors abound, mostly that 1) there's no twist ending (which, in and of itself for M. "Suge" Night, IS a twist), and 2) the "aliens" are actually witches. However, we do know that M-Suge has publicly denied a Dave Chappelle cameo for a comedic-relief line at the end, "them bitches is witches!".
-e
watched it last night after reading the "leaked" news stories last month... it was just too well-produced and yes, blair-witchy. casting was too slick. Night's "uncooperative" voice-message to the producers at the end was too succinct of a summary. for a guy who's a great director and likes to make cameos in his films, his acting is sort of... er...
it *was* a nice try tho --- totally not believable, but genre-honoring fun for geeky shyamalan fans like me.
IMHO, M. Night is getting a few too many turns on the corporate PR carousel these days -- a few months back, ABC showed each of his movies for their Sunday Night Feature, with copious plugging for "The Village." The movie trailer looked good, but I think he did better billed as "out of nowhere heir to Hitchcock" than "recipient of the 2004 Ron Howard Company Man Award." As for the movie itself, I believe JKottke posted that the "twist" (or "non-twist," or whatever) was solved by some online fans based on nothing more than a simple plot outline...unfortunately, I thought about it for more than ten seconds, and I think I figured it out too. SPOILER [?] ALERT: I'll just say this: the village is supposed to be in a "remote, untouched" area of Pennsylvania. But I still want to see it -- he knows how to work the Spielbergian suspense (i.e. "dont' show the shark/alien/baddie until at least halfway through") better than anyone.
Imagine if it were true...So I pose this question... What if?
I really want to know what the twist is. I can't watch the nmovie as a movie when I am so caught up in trying to solve the mystery. Someone email me.