M. Night Shyamalan Has Airbender 2 "Mapped Out," Nothing on Unbreakable 2
Posted 07.10.10 by Ryan
The critics weren't kind to M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender, but after opening to $57 million, could a sequel be far away? Shyamalan told MTV that he has two sequels already mapped out in his mind.
I do. The third is more ambiguous, but the second one, I've written a draft that I'm really happy with and is darker and richer, and it has a wonderful antagonist in it in Azula [Summer Bishil], who's kind of like our only real, pure antagonist in the series, so I'm excited about that.
Shyamalan says that the next movie would include the female Kyoshi Warriors in the sequel, should it happen.
I probably won't show the Kyoshi Warriors [in the DVD] because I want to save them for the second movie, because I'm going to have to introduce them all over again. We shot [the scene] and [the Kyoshi Warriors] were amazing, and we spent an unbelievable amount of time choreographing them, and they just distracted from the movie, because the movie wasn't about them.
While Shyamalan's plans for another Airbender are already laid out, the director still has no idea on how to make a sequel to 2000's Unbreakable, which profited from a $248 million in worldwide box office. In a separate MTV interview, Shyamalan said he was still waiting for a good idea.
I just have to think of the right story. If I think of the right story — and by that I mean something that resonates with me right now, you know, at my age and where I am and what movie I've come off of — if I can do that, then I'll get really excited and I'll write a draft and I'll go beg Disney for us to be able to make it.
If The Last Airbender ends up being profitable, he may not have to beg, that is, once he gets an idea. The problem is, Airbender's high cost means that the movie has to (ahem) eclipse $280 million, and while the movie opened better than anticipated, it has a long way to go before it starts to make a profit.