Week Of July 10, 2006 - Mon / Wed / Fri

July 10, 2006

We live in an insane world in Hollywood.

Michael Bamberger's "The Man Who Heard Voices," a look at M. Night Shyamalan during the creation, production, and post-production of the about-to-be-released Lady In The Water, is an instant classic, offering an outsider's view of the behavior of a writer-director in a way not heretofore offered in any book. Bill Goldman's and David Mamet's self-analysis, above but amongst others, are wondrous. But Bamberger has just enough separation from his subject to offer something of a different level altogether.

I haven't read Bamberger before, but early on in his story, after Shyamalan admires the style of another book Bamberger had written, he tells his subject-to-be that, as with the previous book, Night "would (not) have any say about what went into (the) book… or the book would have no credibility." Agreed. By handshake.

Mr. Bamberger is a very clever writer. It is always a mistake to think that someone who is writing non-fiction is just typing out what he sees. Bamberger delivers three acts like the best of Hollywood's script shapers.

Act One is Crazy Night. This is the one that almost every story has been written about. And just because there is an Act Two & Three (the postscript will be delivered in a few weeks), does not mean that Shyamalan does not come off as a complete whack job for 84 pages.

Night struggles with his new script. Night offers unexpected perspective on his previous films. We learn how Night gathers his emotional and spiritual resources to move forward against likely odds.

Of course, the real fun starts when things with Disney take an unexpectedly unsupportive turn. This third of the book co-stars Jeremy Zimmer, Nina Jacobsen, Dick Cook and, in a nearly silent role, movie-star-marketer Oren Aviv.

You've probably heard the stories. Night gets upset when Nina Jacobsen isn't home waiting for the script to be delivered. Night gets upset when she doesn't "get" the script. Night is offended by the studio having an opinion, even if they are willing to finance the film and keep their noses out of it completely. Night rejects his "home" studio and then won't allow his agent to conduct an auction.

Even as Night's mind runs in circles like a dog chasing an electronic hare at a dog track, there is more sympathy developed than you might expect. I don't know about you, but I've put my brain around the track more than a time or two myself. And the mind of a guy trying to create original screenplays, carrying the (self-imposed) pressure of world-beating success, can be a scary place. But should this really be a surprise? What is remarkable is Night's willingness to let Bamberger into his head. One sensation for the reader is stunned amazement at Night's arrogance in being so open.

You should read it for yourself, but the guy has more ticks than a Tourettes sufferer. As a screenwriter, he has structured superstitions and habits that he expects people to play along with, since he thinks he's earned it. Deadly, but not unusual. His dismissal of Disney is insane. There is something completely petulant and childlike about it. And, again, the arrogance. Night is a classic character, at least as portrayed by Bamberger, who gets both your sympathy and disdain. He does seem to be in pursuit of something greater… and he seems like a self-important jackass in the same paragraph.

Act Two is Night Directs.

It's a very different brain space in the middle act. Bamberger explains this as a complete character change as Shyamalan puts on his "salesman suit." A new set of muscles seem to be built into the suit. (The insecurities never seem to go away completely.)

Act Two focuses on Night, Paul Giamatti, "Super" Chris Doyle, Bryce Howard, Cindy Cheung (it is hoped that the name will ring a loud bell by August), and the crew of Lady In The Water. Again, Bamberger keeps the device of the voices in Night's head (as Night seems to), but the act of pre-production and production offer something solid for Shyamalan to focus on, other than his racing mind.

Aside from issues regarding the antics of Chris Doyle, this act section doesn't offer quite as much of an inside look at the director's mind as much as it is an on-set report from the production. As a welcome member of the set, Bamberger does most of his work here observing. A few of the players are forthcoming, but like Giamatti, it seems our writer may be a little too shy to ask about anything he feels he can trust his eyes to report.

Act Three is Night Post.

After all the arrogance and presumption of the first two acts, the difficult post-production and the telling of it are a real surprise in this book. Bamberger seems both objective and a bit of a believer in Shyamalan who doesn't really want to hit hard. But this third act… it hits really hard.

This third person memoir is not to be confused with "The Devil's Candy" or "Final Cut." This is distinctly not a book about a troubled film or an outside view. What makes this book unique is the unusual proximity to a writer/director. And, like the rest of the book, there are peaks an valleys within this act as well.

But what is the final answer?

Well, early one, one of Night's voices in his head tells him, "There is a fundamental problem in the script that nobody will see until it plays in front of a live audience on a big screen."

Has that happened? Is it fixed? Are we still to find it?

Good question.

The truth is, "The Man Who Heard Voices" will either be the book that makes Shyamalan into a true Spielberg figure in Holywood's eyes or it will be the book that makes him a laughing stock on a level with a director in a dress selling sex on Sunset. It really depends whether the movie, Lady in the Water, works or doesn't. If it is a smash hit, he is an eccentric genius brave enough to air his quirks out in public. It if bombs - or is perceived as bombing - he is a lunatic, egomaniac who may have to make his next film for $50 million.

But early word on the book and Janet Maslin's NYT review, are a bit too harsh. What is remarkable about the book is not that Shyamalan changes, but that the context of his quirky ways does. And by launching into the literary world just as his new movie does, it offers a singular level of insight - even if Bamberger sometimes does overindulge his subject and those around him - and a chance to get a read on a situation… and then to get a read a few weeks later that has the perspective of success and failure.

But you definitely have to get over the jet envy to look at the story with any objectivity.

One story in the book grabbed me enough to transcribe….

The story starts with Bamberger interviewing Nina Jacobsen after the film has been shot, maybe 8 months after the script sale fell through. Again, a redemptive element in the third act. But still, Ms, Jacobsen puts her foot in it a bit by referencing an anonymous AICN review of the film as a way of proving that she was right. When asked about it, Night tells the story of the review (I've thinned it out a bit) -

"We screened a rough cut in the screening room in the barn," Night said, falling immediately into the tone of a storyteller. "A friend brought a friend, a kid who goes to NYU who wants to be a director. The second I heard about the review, I figured it must have been this kid. He was the only one I didn't know. So we called him. At first he denied it, and then he admitted it was him."

"I wanted to meet him face-to-face. I was going to New York anyway, So I arranged to meet him at some dark little place downtown, near NYU, like a small restaurant-bar."

"When the kid first came in, he was like I'm the big man here. Very arrogant. First he gets all this attention for writing this review, now the director wants to meet him, that whole thing."

"The first thing I said to him was 'Let's leave aside how completely wrong it is to come to a screening like the one you came to, where I tell you the movie's unfinished, that what you're about to watch is a rough cut, that it still needs a lot of work, and that you can all be helpful to me by telling me what you think, and then you go out and write a public review about a private experience. I find that all unbelievably troubling, but that's not even on my radar screen compared to what I am about to tell you.'"

"Then I say, I can find anyone who can come in a watch a rough cut and say, 'It was good - I like how you used the butterflies' or whatever. That doesn't do shit for me."

"But you come in and have real opinions and real criticisms. You're the kind of person who can help me make the movie better… I'm going to listen and see what I can learn from you."

"I say to him, 'Did you know Francis Coppola added one hour to The Godfather from the first time he started showing the rough cut until the time the movie was released? One hour. It never would have been The Godfather without that hour. But Coppola couldn't work that way today, because someone would sneak into a screening of the rough cut, post a review on a website, say the movie's just another gangster picture, the studio would lose faith, and that would be the end of it.'"

"That's why I am showing rough cuts, to get responses before I go out into the world."

Night embraced the kid and solicited his opinion privately. The kid had the review moved from AICN. The rest is history. But it is a first-hand account about how damaging test screening and pre-release script reviews can be.

Bamberger knows how to tell a story. And this story is less unique than it may seem. And more intimate than you'll ever find elsewhere. Buy it now.

E Me.

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