M. Night Shyamalan Will Drag ‘Slumdog’ Star Down Too

Published by Jeff Leins on February 4, 2009

Hack director M. Night Shyamalan has somehow hired one of the hottest young actors for his next movie.  Slumdog Millionaire star Dev Patel has agreed to join the cast of The Last Airbender, a live-action adaptation of the Nickelodeon TV series.

Patel replaces teen idol Jesse McCartney, who had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with his pop singing career and the movie’s martial arts boot camp.  Patel will play Zuko, a representative of the “Fire Nation” and the villain in the first of a proposed trilogy.

Shyamalan has received a lot of criticism for the casting of this film, especially over choosing mostly non-Asians for the roles.  There was even a protest outside an open casting call in Philadelphia.

He has selected stiff Twillight star Jackson Rathbone, 12-year-old Noah Ringer from an Internet audition, and random child actor Nicola Peltz.

The only thing that could save this movie would be a new director.  M. Night Shyamalan hasn’t made a good movie in a decade.  He’s a one-hit wonder who continues to churn out terrible movies that waste the talents of those involved.  I know people will find a way to defend Signs, the movie where aliens are afraid of water, but Mel Gibson didn’t act in another major movie for seven years after that garbage.  Unbreakable was not clever, it was boring.  Lady in the Water and especially The Happening are two of the worst movies of the millenium.  How anyone is still putting faith in M. Night Shyamalan is baffling.