M Night Shyamalan is one of the most singular and successful film-makers working today. His signature style – glossy spooker with goggling twist – was set early in his career with The Sixth Sense, the first of his many collaborations with Bruce Willis and an enduring classic.
He followed it up with the Willis/Samuel L Jackson train-set rollercoaster Unbreakable; Signs, in which Joaquin Phoenix and Mel Gibson are baffled by crop circles; and The Village, featuring Bryce Dallas Howard as a woman trapped in a regressive rural community.
His next four movies didn’t reach the critical heights of those first four, though many went great guns at the box office. Lady in the Water, reportedly inspired by a grisly critic, wasn’t embraced by reviewers; neither were The Happening with Mark Wahlberg, The Last Airbender with Dev Patel or After Earth, featuring Will and Jaden Smith.
But things got back on track in 2015 with The Visit, about a tricky stay with grandparents, followed by James McAvoy-takes-23-roles sensation Split, then Glass (Willis and Jackson again) and, the year before last, Old, in which holidaymakers are dismayed by the premature ageing effects of an idyllic beach.
His new film, Knock at the Cabin, is based on a novel by Paul G Tremblay, and will star Dave Bautista, Rupert Grint and Nikki Amuka-Bird. It’s another hols-gone-wrong film: a family vacationing at their remote cabin are held hostage by four strangers who demand they sacrifice someone to avert the impending apocalypse – which, if true, sounds quite reasonable.
We need your questions for Shyamalan. And remember: you can ask about those tantalising projects he’s less well-known for – or which never came to fruition. He co-wrote the screenplay for charming mouse comedy Stuart Little and was a ghostwriter on top teen flick She’s All That. He nearly directed the fourth Indiana Jones, and was very keen to make a Harry Potter movie.
And don’t forget his telly work: Wayward Pines and, more recently, Servant – about an evil nanny and a reborn doll being raised as a baby.
Post your questions below by 5pm GMT on 23 January; a selection of answers will be published on 3 February.
