While M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender may have been a critical disaster, the film has supplied Paramount with a decent box-office run, taking in over $79 million domestically, as it heads into its second weekend. While Shyamalan still has a way to go before he recoups the $150 million budget, it’s not hard to imagine the film turning a decent profit.
Of course, with that kind of box-office potential, it’s only a matter of time before Paramount starts talking about The Last Airbender sequel – poor critical reception didn’t stop the studio from making Transformers 3. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, Shyamalan has already mapped out two Airbender sequels.
Speaking with MTV, Shyamalan confirmed that he’s already begun work, in an unofficial capacity, on a pair of Airbender sequels. Just like any director staring down the barrel of a critical bomb, Shyamalan is already resting on one of Hollywood’s principle go-to change-ups, promising that the Airbender sequels will be darker in tone.
“I do [have things mapped out]. The third is more ambiguous, but the second one, I’ve written a draft that I’m really happy with and is darker and richer, and it has a wonderful antagonist in it in Azula, who’s kind of like our only real, pure antagonist in the series, so I’m excited about that.”
Check out the interview snippet below to hear it straight from Shayamalan himself:
Shyamalan also indicates that certain Last Airbender footage that was shot, but cut, will not appear as deleted material on the DVD release – as the scenes have been saved for the future sequels. Giving a hint at the direction Shyamalan hopes to take the franchise.
Hint: Elite female warriors en route.
“We shot [an amazing scene with the Kyoshi Warriors], and we spent an unbelievable amount of time choreographing them. And they just distracted from the movie, because the movie wasn’t about them. I probably won’t show the Kyoshi Warriors [on the DVD] because I want to save them for the second movie, because I’m going to have to introduce them all over again.”
Since Paramount already took a number of liberties with the franchise, to the studio an Airbender sequel is probably a no-brainer - considering the box-office potential, not to mention cliffhanger in the first film. But will they bring Shyamalan back? Especially since most critics have universally placed the blame, for Airbender’s failure, squarely on the director’s shoulders.
Shyamalan seems pretty rooted in the production process (having already shot scenes that could be used in a sequel), as well as the future direction of the franchise. It’s hard to imagine Paramount uprooting him simply because critics thought the first film was a total mess. While many fans of the Avatar cartoon, myself included, might have felt cheated by Shyamalan’s Airbender film, the general public is embracing the film with cash-money. While Shyamalan might have made a mockery of the cartoon as we know it, Aang and the Avatar franchise now have more commercial appeal than ever before.
Hopefully, the critical failure of The Last Airbender will finally be the kick in the pants that Shyamalan has needed for years – getting him out of his own head and back in the business of quality filmmaking.
What do you think of the prospect of a trilogy for The Last Airbender? Do you think Shyamalan is the man to finish the job?
Source: MTV
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I liked the last airbender it was a good movie, my only critic is make the actors watch the cartoon so they can pick up more of their characters characteristics. Hope to see a sequel.
The Legend of Korra may be a good idea for the sequel
I personally like M. Knight Shamylan’s work. He should have gotten the Oscar for “The 6th Sense” instead of the politically correct “American Rose”. The Last of the Airbender’s is fantasy and could have been improved but I liked it. I can’t wait for Airbender 2.
i luv Avatar the last airbender n i want to c the rest of the sequal so please dont stop making the movies
I believe in all and would pay to see any and all sequals. Loved the movie can’t wait for another.
I thought Shyamalan did a wonderful job with turning the animated series into the first movie! I am a longtime fan of the animated series. Anyone has to realize when a series or book are made into a movie there are parameters in movie making that make putting every little detail from the series difficult. Number one: time. A movie only runs for an hour an a half to two hours normally. I thought the movie was brilliantly done! I am sincerely hoping Shyamalan is there to do the second and third movie. If he isn’t, the feel, texture, and tone of the trilogy won’t stay in tact.
All these positive comments… I figure one of two things.
A: these people have never seen a good movie before and have no idea what one looks, sounds, or feels like.
or
B: Shyamlan spread a lot of money around.
I’ve seen hundreds, if not thousands of movies over the years, and this is one of the worst I’ve seen. This is Ed Wood bad.
I thought that The Last Airbender was alright and that it could have been better. In the movie, Prince Zuko wasn’t as upset as he was in the cartoon. Also, in the cartoon, the monks never told Aang that he could not have a family. In the movie, I liked the costumes, music, and some of the effects. Unfortunately, The Last Airbencer was too short. M. Night Shyamalan stated in an interview that all 3 movies in The Last Airbender trilogy were going to be at least 2 hours long. The first movie was only 1 hour and 43 min. long, which equals up to 103 min. The Last Airbender 2 has to be longer than the first one. For example, Transformers: Dark of the Moon is 2 hours and 37 min. long, which equals up to 157 minutes. When The Last Airbender 2 comes out, lighting will be introduced. If M. Night Shyamalan needs help on creating effects for lighting, then he can look for examples in the Star Wars and Harry Potter films. Also, the earthbending has to be better than how it was made in the first one. Since Book 2: Earth was the most suspenseful season of the Avatar series, then The Last Airbender 2 has to be darker and deeper than the first one. Also, in the first movie the Blue Spirit didn’t use his swords to cut his enemies; he only did a few flips and kicks to stun his enemies. Maybe M. Night Shyamalan needs to look at a few sword fighting movies for examples to put in The Last Airbender 2; such as Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. In The Last Airbender 2, they could show a waterbender bend a stream of water and use it to shoot hard and sharp ice at a few Fire Nation soldiers. Also, when Fire Nation ships launch huge fireballs, the fireballs can make a lot of damage and explosions on buildings. Aang can also use his airbending abilities to blast his enemies through walls. Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 were action-packed, and they had a lot of funny and emotional parts. When The Last Airbender 2 comes out into the movie theaters, most people will probably be wanting to see a lot of the following: Intense Action, Intense Violence, Mayhem and Mass Destruction, and Emotional Scenes. It would also be more entertaining if The Last Airbender 2 was made to be seen in IMAX 3D because people would feel as if they are inside the movie.
If he makes the sequal it will just anger us Airbender fans even more. He killed the wonderful plotline of the first series of the show. I can already tell that his plans to put the Kyoshi worries in the second movie is going to ruin it. How can he just take the series plot line, throw it up in the air and try to peice it together in his own renditioin. It’s horrible! Just stop! Stop stop stop!
I liked the movie adaptation and loved the cartoon. M.Night will do fine in the sequals but has to move quick because Aang is growing up fast. The movie was fine and better is on the way.
I think maybe the fans of the cartoon are going to be impossible to make happy, in much the same way that fans of a book are never really satisfied with an adaptation. I think they have been unfairly critical of the movie. I’ve seen the cartoon and was not impressed with it. My son loves it and so does my husband. All three of us liked the movie. I know many other people who enjoyed it, none of them have ever seen the cartoon or, if they have, they are not major followers of it. If you are not extremely devoted to the cartoon, or at least have an open mind, the movie is perfectly fine. There were a few things I didn’t like, but OVERALL it was a decent movie.
decent? you thought that was decent? i can understand your point from not everybody can be satisfied with an adaptation but from what i know most harry potter fans that read the books are satisfied with the movie adaptations, because they are done RIGHT for a movie and adaptation, this still doesn’t show that its a decent movie. it’s a terrible movie on it’s own. it doesn’t have to be an adaptation for it to suck, unfortunately this movie does come from an adaptation. visually its good but sadly its direction is sloppy and its writing is bland. the majority of the people who saw it really enjoy the series and to them this movie has become an embarrassment. it’s just interesting that i found someone that didn’t like the show but liked the movie. i understand your older and a mother, but saying that people arn’t always happy with adaptations is just stupid.
I think that the movie’s critical response shows that it is not just a matter of it getting a bad rep from fans of the cartoon. Many of the critics haven’t seen the show either, and they are bashing the movie based on the film by itself and on the usual things films are judged by – acting, direction, writing and overall coherency. It just happens to make it worse that it is an adaptation of an already well-rounded, well-produced animated TV show.
I loved the movie and everyone I know enjoyed it as well. I will be extremely disappointed if the sequels don’t get made as I have been dying to see them! Keep up the good work!
i loved the movie. i cannot wait for the sequels. i watched the tv version and i thought this adaptation was great. hurry up this kid is aging by the minute…..
Horrible movie, lets just all agree on that. I almost couldn’t finish it. My sister had told me it was bad but honestly, I didn’t think it COULD be THAT bad. I personally am a fan of M. Night, but apparently this isn’t his style of movies. If he does proceed with the second book, I’d give it a try, maybe he can redeem himself a little for the disaster he created with the first one.
In that case, remake the one he screwed up first. The only thing I liked about the movie was the soundtrack.
As the first film in my opinion was cheap and total disappointment to the true fans of the franchise, for that reason, it is owed to the fans and strangers to the series that books two and three be told to above all else finish what is in my opinion one of the greatest stories of struggle, hope, and courage ever to be told
The sad thing is, it wasn’t cheap at all. It was very friggen expensive, and it still sucked that bad.
The movie was bad…very…very bad…I”m a big fan…but this just suck…he says the next movie will be darker…its not one of your scary movies…with twist….M. Night…just watch the cartoon and stay true to the characters. Idiot. I have one name “Chris Columbus” now that is a director who can adapt a show…plus he’s a kids director..and knows what true fans like…Goonies, Gremlins, Harry Potter, Adventures in Babysitting, Mrs. Doubtfire just to name a few now he is a director M. Night can learn how to adapt a movie just watch Harry Potter.
It was AMAZING!!!!
THIS MOVIE IS AWESOME!!
I loved the movie and cannot wait to see more! I agree that alot of the cartoon fans cannot be satisfied. Open up your mind to entertainment and stop taking yourselves so seriously.
Opinions are easy from the movie seats. Unfortunately, fans are very unforgiving. Shyamalan is a talented director, remember Sixth Sense? You all said “no freakin way” at the end. Admit it. So M. Night can make an engaging movie. Something went off the rails with Airbender, no doubt. But it did make a handsome profit so the studio should green light the sequels. Perhaps some additional heavyweight writers to augment the screenplay. Let’s face it, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Andrew Lesnie, these are very capable people. Let’s tighten the reigns on the director a bit and require a more collaborative effort from these titans of movie making. The talent is there, let’s harness it to full effect.
…and for goodness sake, please hire some serious vocal coaches. Please lose the “hey guys, look at what I can do” goofy white modern american kid dialect. The kid’s martial art skills are without a doubt top flight. But the dialect and delivery must be addresses. Timing, diction, classical delivery. The previous poster might be on to something… let’s bring in a secondary director who’s really good with child actors and leave the other stuff to M. Night. Collaborate, people. Use the talent that’s already on the project and bring in what was missing the first time. You’re 95% to a really great sequel. And it wouldn’t be heard to exceed the first one. There’s a novel idea.
Sixth Sense and Unbreakable were great, but his movies have been “going off the rails” for a while before he came along to add his sloppy direction to Airbender.
What are you talking about? We cartoon fans cannot be satisfied? Actually we could be very satisfied and all M. Night had to do was stay true to the characters, the way of bending, and the damn character names. The cartoon had the movie prewritten practically all he had to do was cut out all the little things that happened on Aangs journey in each show. This cartoon isn’t a dark cartoon. M. Night completely ruined Aangs true personality and his journey from a kid to becoming a great Avatar. M. Night just showed him as a serious little kid who is ready to become the Avatar, but the thing is Aang isn’t ready until the 3rd series.
My family enjoyed the movie together and we would like to see how the director tells the rest of the story.
This movies wasn’t all that bad i have defiantly scene worse.. i am a huge fan of the cartoon serious and i do think they could of done a little better with the charter mapping… the uncle was suppose to be short chubby and have a big beard and crack wise jokes.. Sokka was suppose to have a Mohawk and they could of done a way better job matching up Katara completely.. hair style wasn’t even close to a match was suppose to be a back ponytail with 2 strips of hair in front of her face… and the ending with the big wave was pretty awesome id say it was the highlight of the movie. i didn’t get the same vie from Aang as i did in the cartoon series’s fun and playful..
I just watched the movie. It’s great. I have seen a few episodes of the cartoon, yeah I see the differences, but really, who cares??? I was entertained, and I will totally watch the sequel if they make it. If you love the
cartoon version, I’m pretty sure you can get the box set of all of it and just watch it over and over again….
Cheers!
if he makes a sequel, he needs to make sure he pronounces the avatars name properly
it’s Aang – not Ung! that annoyed the hell out of me throughout the entire movie, just the pronounciation of the bloody names!!
I’m a big fan of the cartoon, and was pretty disappointed in the movie. Not because it wasn’t an identical translation of the cartoon (though that would have been nice), but because there wasn’t a lot character development. I’m fine with the casting, and could even learn to tolerate the changed pronunciation, but bad writing is a killer. In this instance, he’s not a good screenwriter. If he hires a professional who is a good fit, then it could be a good movie. The special effects were good. Unfortunately, I don’t see hope for a positive change if he doesn’t acknowledge the problems in the first movie. He seems intent of producing more of the same. I’ll see it, but lower my expectations next time.
I’m not sure if many of you realize what a screen writer has to deal with when making a movie based on, a book, a series, etc. There is a huge time constraint Almost all movies are 2 hours or less with few exceptions. the first book of Avatar (cartoon series) was 20 episodes. Now at ~20-25 minutes an episode that’s equals out to be at least 6 hours. Now lets see if any of you can cram 6 hours in a third of that time. UNLIKELY Obiously things will be left out or moved. That’s how you manage to fit 6 hours into a 2 hour movie. At no point will watching this movie was I lost, or confused. So I say GREAT JOB!
@Tom,
even if M.Night were to extend the movie to run longer, his style of filmmaking still wouldn’t be interesting to a lot of viewers. Many felt the pacing of the film is just too slow and boring, the acting was terrible (not really the actors fault), unfair representation of the lead actors, and the pronunciation of the names irritated a lot of people. It lacked many fundamental elements of the animated series that made the show so popular and he even admitted to Vulture magazine interview his style of filmmaking didn’t translate very well. He said he didn’t know how to adapt his filmmaking without being him.
John,
The pacing and timming of the film is very good but not accepted here in america. Sadly the american audience have been used to see movies with fast editing and crappy camera shots. So its no suprise that the pacing is too long but worth the time. At least M. Night has the dicipline to let ech frame of film stand for a few seconds in american films forget it.
@ Johnny
I’ve seen many indie films where the pacing is even slower than Night’s films, but these indie films were produced that way on purpose, where as TLA feels like he didn’t know how to adapt his filmmaking style for a fantasy story that he is not used to.
You might be right because this is the first fatasy movie that M. Night work on. Plus the movie is based on a tv. series and not from M. Night’s original ideas. I guess he suffer a culture shock when he work on blockbuster, so I can forgive him once but I believe he has learn alot from this experience. Every filmmaker learns from his mistakes and past experiences. I am confident he will do better on the sequel but first he is going to work on a Sci-Fi movie with the Smiths. He will gaing more experience on the film and apply it on the sequel. Time will tell.
There is a major difference between an adaptation and a new vision given to an already existing idea. Im not going to go in to the political views this movie that have surfaced, just the major problems in a filming style and acting choices. To be completely fair to the young actor playing aang, he was just doing the best that he could under the circumstances. He will get better as time goes on, but for now some acting lessons might be in order. To the other cast do I believe that they were the correct decision, no. The show had something that many don’t following the same genre, and that is a story that was captivating to people of all ages. Yes it would be hard to cram twenty some episodes into one movie, but whats the problem with dividing the seasons into two movies like the final installment of harry potter and twilight. And then there is the option of removing episodes that have zero relevance to the season as a whole. Of course it brings up the question of making money; in this economy a bad movie won’t bring people into the screens but a “ok” movie divided into two parts is just as bad. Which brings me to my next point. A great movie needs a great director and M. Night just isn’t that. Look at his track record, the last five movies he directed were simply OK. To make a movie like The Last Airbender shine and translate from cartoon to live action needs a director capable of doing so. If you were a true fan of the cartoon like I was, you will agree that this move super sucked. All the small connections between all the characters were choppy and lost. I say give it five years and then try again. This should be around the ending of the next show Legend of Korra, and should spark the interest in the beginning show to younger viewers.
I would love to see this turn into a trilogy, and I’m not sure how the critics thought this a flop. I also think that Shyamalan should be the one to finish the job. I never saw the cartoon but if the movie does have a drastically different story then why would that make this story worse?
I would love to see this turn into a trilogy, and I’m not sure how the critics thought this a flop. I also think that Shyamalan should be the one to finish the job. I never saw the cartoon but if the movie does have a drastically different story then why would that make this story worse.
I love the movie!!! I have watched it again and again at least a dozen times now. I thought the story was fascinating, the scenery is amazing. I love the actors who portray the characters. I think that M. Night did a wonderful job bringing this story to film. I can’t wait for the next movie as I am left hungry for more. Please continue with these fascinatingly creative endeavors.
Very very disappointed with this movie. I actually think he never bothered to sit down and watch the show to gain an understanding of the show instead just decided what it should be about. If they are releasing 2 more movies I reckon a huge amount of recasting has to be done as well as getting rid of M.Night. His movies have progressively gotten worse and unfortunately Avatar was made at the wrong time. They need someone new and not living in his/her own world.
I support a new movie so long as they change the director, the screenwriter, and all of the actors apart from dev patel and the guy who played iroh. God-awful acting even for a kid’s movie. The Spy-Kids child-actors are better than this lot.
Personally, I LOVE the series. I like the Airbender movies and would like to see the progression of M. Night through these movies. He’s got a quirky way of telling a story that most don’t get. But I like it.