- Title: USA: M. Knight Shyamalan's "The Happening" premieres in New York
- Date: 12th June 2008
- Summary: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK USA (JUNE 10, 2008) (REUTERS) ZOOEY DESCHANEL AND M. KNIGHT SHYAMALAN ON THE RED CARPET TALKING TO REPORTERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ZOOEY DESCHANEL SAYING: "It's not any particular specific message. I think that it raises questions, which I think theology does and religion does and spirituality does." CAMERAS (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR M. KNIGHT SHYAMALAN SAYING: "I am, ever since I wrote this thing, I've been kind of weary of doing the wrong thing. I'm reusing this tissue as much as I can." ZOOEY DESCHANEL, M. KNIGHT SHYAMALAN AND MARK WAHLBERG TALKING TO REPORTERS
- Embargoed: 27th June 2008 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Usa
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVA7XEYN4209AIG4IUCHAJ8G5BK7
- Story Text: Director M. Knight Shyamalan's paranoia filled flick "The Happening" has its world premiere in New York City.
The heat is on in New York and the red carpet sizzled at the world premiere of M. Knight Shyamalan's anticipated film "The Happening."
Bubbly beauty Zooey Deschanel turned heads in a pink satin Christian Dior dress and teetering Christian Laboutin shoes.
Deschanel stars alongside Mark Wahlberg in the fast-paced doomsday thriller, which Shyamalan describes as a classic B-movie.
"You know it was based on kind of the movies from the '50s and '60s, like the Don Segal's "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" or even "Night of the Living Dead," which was also shot in Pennsylvania and "Children of the Dammed." You know subjects that are not important subjects, they're just kind of zombies eating flesh kind of movies. And if you take it in that mode, that's what I told the crew and cast we we're of making, and there are fumes of something important that we're talking about but that's just later on," Shyamalan told Reuters.
In "The Happening" a family is on the run from an inexplicable and unimaginable plague - an airborne neurotoxin that causes mass suicides in the northeastern U.S. Philadelphia high school science teacher Elliot Moore (Wahlberg) is trying to find a way to avoid the deadly phenomenon.
Though he and his wife Alma (Deschanel) are in the midst of a marital crisis, they hit the road, trying to avoid what seems to be nature's freakout.
Wahlberg says he read the script and jumped at the chance to work with Shyamalan.
"I basically chose it for selfish reasons. I don't get offered these kind of parts. I thought it was a great script and the fact that he wanted me was just an honour. He is one of the unique visionaries that we have in the business."
The actor and director connected so much that Shyamalan made a cameo appearance on HBO's hit show "Entourage," which Wahlberg executive produces.
Zooey Deschanel says she too admires Shyamalan and related to the spiritual themes in the script.
"It's not any particular specific message. I think that it raises questions, which I think theology does and religion does and spirituality does."
As the couple and their friend, a fellow teacher portrayed by John Leguizamo, try to avoid the horrors of the deadly events, they end up in the Pennsylvania countryside. The science teacher determines that the toxins are generated by plants and trees and are airborne, so every breath of air, every flutter of tall grass or rush of wind causes hearts to stop.
Shyamalan says the the idea that the environment could strike back has made him think differently about how he relates to his surroundings.
"I am, ever since I wrote this thing, I've been kind of weary of doing the wrong thing. I'm reusing this tissue as much as I can."
"The Happening" hits theatres in North America on June 13th. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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