Current Events > why did they get M. Night to direct the TLA movie

(+) Yeah! (+)

was it just because his name sounded vaguely kung-fu-ish and he was a known name at the time

Because only he could pull off the ultimate twist of all :taking amazing material and turning it into a steaming pile of garbage.
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He's apparently a big fan of the show.
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IIRC his kids were big fans of the show so he pursued the project to make it for them.

I guess he hates his kids.

EDIT: Here's from an interview
http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/05/22/m-night-shyamalan-defends-his-avatar-the-last-airbender-adaptation

"I think the four things I've adapted are Stuart Little -- which I just wrote -- Avatar: The Last Airbender, After Earth, and now Wayward Pines. With both Stuart Little and Wayward Pines, I was just a part of the process. I think it was really wonderful and healthy; I approached it like -- I want to do right by the material, and I want to help people create the tone and that kind of thing. The other two were more taking it and trying to make it my own, which is really a different thing entirely. "

"It's really weird because on the show the average age was, like, nine-years-old," the director said. "My child was nine-years-old. So you could make it one of two ways. You could make it for that same audience, which is what I did -- for nine and 10-year-olds -- or you could do the Transformers version and have Megan Fox. I didn't do that. That would have felt like, 'Well, I'm going to make a movie about a kids show that my 10-year-old is watching and not make it for her. I make it for my guy friends.' That felt like a betrayal of the innocence of the piece. In retrospect, is it too young to go out -- it's like what your intention is versus what they want it to be. Clearly, 10-year-olds -- I go out and 10-year-olds are like, 'That's my favorite show! I love that movie!' Parents come up to me and go, 'They've watched The Last Airbender 74 times!' Those kids, it's for them. It was for them, to talk about mysticism and Eastern philosophies through a 10-year-old's vernacular. So, you know, these are business propositions, which have very little interest to me, of like, 'Hey, the business proposition is to get Megan Fox to be...' You know, 'You should age it 'til it's that.' That wasn't the source material, you know what I mean? Whereas, also, like a Transformers, it's really fascinating, because it's valid for Transformers. You know why it's valid? Because it's the little boys that were playing with them are grown up now. They're the ones who wanted to see Megan Fox. That's absolutely appropriate, you know what I mean?"

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s0nicfan posted...

The other two were more taking it and trying to make it my own,

Which included changing pronunciations of names for no fucking reason. God, he's such an idiot.
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s0nicfan posted...

was for them, to talk about mysticism and Eastern philosophies through a 10-year-old's vernacular

"Which is why I turned down help from the guy that made sure all the Eastern philosophies in the show are right."
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