The answer to the subject title: maybe. Ok, probably. But, hey, at least his career didn't burn out as quickly as Michael Cimino's. I'm sure most cinephiles remember Michael Cimino but some casual film fans might not, but I'll get to that. First, let's discuss M. Night.
We all know the story by now. M. Night Shyamalan started out promising enough. He officially became a household name with The Sixth Sense, gained critical respect with the mature Unbreakable, then proved he wasn't a one hit wonder at the box office with Signs. But perhaps Signs should've been a warning to us as it was the first indication of M. Night's main weakness: including a twist no matter how crappy the twist is nor how much it ruins the rest of the movie. Not to mention, ruining it for other directors whose movie does contain a good twist.
But yeah, so the Village came out and while it still made a considerable amount of money in the box office, it was the beginning of the end for the man. He was given two more cracks at it: Lady in the Water and The Happening. With each movie, he received exponentially worse reviews than the last. But you know what? Though Lady in the Water was pretty much a box office disappointment, overall, he hasn't had yet a total and complete box office failure. The Happening still raked in some respectable dough on a considerably modest budget.
But still, the critical failures of three straight movies must have left Night reeling, so he tried to do what any director would do in his situation, go the mainstream Hollywood studio movie route. How could he go wrong by adapting the popular Nick show "Avatar: Last Airbender"? According to rottentomatoes, he can go way wrong. Not only is it getting his worst ever reviews, but everyone expects the movie to fail... and with a $150 mill budget, it very well may fail... badly.
So does that mean the end for M. Night Shyamalan? Maybe. But hey, he got way too many cracks at it. He was allowed to fail, basically, three times. And his last one might be his worst failure of all. So, to cheer Shyamalan up, I decided to bring up Michael Cimino.
As some may remember, Michael Cimino's career skyrocketed instantly with the release of the massively successful The Deer Hunter in 1978. The late '70s was essentially the height of directorial freedom in Hollywood and every director back then was having the ride of their lives, especially Cimino who was riding off such massive success from The Deer Hunter. After that success, United Artists basically gave him complete artistic freedom for his next film, Heaven's Gate. And what happened? The film went through numerous delays, ended up going way over budget, and it became a massive critical and commercial failure. It was so bad that it nearly bankrupt the studio.
But that wasn't the worst part. With the advent of Jaws, Star Wars, and Superman, Hollywood decided that they didn't need to give their directors creative freedom anymore as they can now rely on their tentpole releases for massive success instead. Michael Cimino's failure basically marked the end of the New Hollywood era and it all lead to where we're at today. Of course, the independent movement of the '90s certainly helped get smaller films off the ground, but essentially it takes a lot now for a director be able to get complete creative control on his films. Overall, they're all on short leashes with major studios.
This is why a lot is riding on Christopher Nolan's "Inception" to do well. "The Dark Knight" was huge, a $500 million grosser... something only James Cameron is seemingly capable of. But "Inception" is a completely original creation by Nolan... made for $200 million. And if a truly unique and interesting mind such as Nolan can have great success with "Inception" it could give hope to other young Hollywood auteurs. All of them, except M. Night Shyamalan. Sorry dude.
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