Unbreakable

SPOILER ALERT: If you have not seen M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Split’ starring James McAvoy (now out on DVD/Blu-Ray), this contains some SPOILERS, so you may wish to turn back now.

‘Unbreakable’ was one of M.Night Shyamalan’s biggest critical and commercial hits.  Many consider it to be one of the greatest comic book movies that wasn’t based on an actual comic book.  Shyamalan celebrated his love of the art form with this film which came out in 2000, when ‘Blade’ and ‘X-Men’ were the only comic book movies that had been made in years, well before the flood of films that followed and, well, before today’s glut.

‘Unbreakable’ starred Bruce Willis as David Dunn a security guard that discovers he is indestructible after he is the sole survivor of a train crash.  He encounters Elijah Price, played by Samuel L. Jackson, who, at an early age, discovered he was the opposite– with bones of “glass” that shattered at the slightest impact.  Thus leading to his alias Mr. Glass.

Unfortunately, Shyamalan’s career hit a slump shortly after with some high-profile duds, but he has reinvented his career in recent years with micro-budget thrillers, which he 100% financed himself– ‘The Visit’ and ‘Split’.  (There is also his hit TV series ‘Wayward Pines’ which has gotten largely positive response.)  While ‘The Visit’ was a huge hit with no stars, ‘Split’ starred James McAvoy– not a huge draw on his own, but a recognizable face thanks to his role as Professor X in the recent ‘X-Men’ movies.  It was a step toward returning to bigger budget fare with more bankable names… and he went so far as to tease that with a closing scene in ‘Split’ that threw back to ‘Unbreakable’, complete with a Willis cameo.

Sure enough, Shyamalan took to Twitter to announce that he is indeed set to start work on a joint sequel for ‘Unbreakable’ and ‘Split’– ‘Glass’ which will star Willis, Jackson, McAvoy and McAvoy’s ‘Split’ costar Anya Taylor Joy.

As you can see there’s already a release date for this film, January 18, 2019.  Probably a good choice, avoiding the overly crowded Summer Season and the increasingly full Holiday Season.  It would help if this was another micro budget film, but with Willis and Jackson onboard, the budget may be inching higher.  As Shyamalan noted, this is his third collaboration with Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions, a studio that specializes in low budget thrillers and horror films (The ‘Paranormal Activity’ and ‘Purge’ franchises).  This may mean that the budget may be kept in check.  Both Willis and Jackson have been known to take pay cuts for high quality, lower budget films.

Are you a fan of ‘Unbreakable’?  Or ‘Split’?  Are you glad to see them getting a joint sequel?

Source: Deadline