I just finished watching M. Night Shymalan’s latest film, Lady in the Water, and I thought it was brilliant. The fact that it didn’t fare so well in the box office ($42.2M, whereas The Village took in nearly $114.2M domestic) suggests that either the film was woefully mismarketed or that my fellow Americans have no souls. The film is a contemporary fairy tale, a story about what happens when an everyday guy (Paul Giamatti’s Cleveland Heep) is drawn into a real-life bedtime story, and the whole thing is done with a wistful, beautiful tone. The monsters are cleverly designed, the proximity of the magical elements to our own reality is so close that it borders on magical realism (although nowhere near as much as Pan’s Labyrinth, natch) and I finished the film with a smile and that “I wish I’d written that” feeling.
Lady in the Water felt a little like a Neil Gaiman story, and watching it made me think about how my own tastes and passions might one day fit into the mainstream media market. Neil’s stuff certainly seems to be wending its way into Hollywood with some degree of success – despite Mirrormask‘s paltry $850K US gross on a budget of $4M, I still loved it. I also loved Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal, which didn’t fare horribly well in the box office either. In fact, most of the things I love aren’t big mainstream successes. My recent work with MTV has shown me that I’m not that much in touch with the “MTV” demographic anymore. I think that’s okay, though. It makes me think I want to try and do some kind of IPTV project that is aimed squarely at this type of content. Something for folks like me, produced on a very limited budget, and with limited expectations for ROI. A nichebuster project.
Hmm. I wonder.