Signs
Release date August 2
Director M. Night Shyamalan
Starring Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Cherry Jones, Rory Culkin
Genre Thriller
Sixth Sense” director M. Night Shya-malan is famous for keeping his audience in the dark about plot twists — so it’s hardly surprising he’s offering little more than a few teasing hints about his latest thriller, “Signs.”
“It’s somewhere between ‘The Sixth Sense’ and ‘Unbreakable,’ ” he says, referring to the 1999 summer blockbuster and its follow-up a year later.
“But it’s different in that it’s about this man who goes through a journey because of this momentous event,” Shyamalan says.
The man in this case is played not by Bruce Willis, the star of Shyamalan’s two earlier hits, but by Mel Gibson — who reportedly received $25 million plus 20 percent of the take for his troubles.
Gibson plays a widowed former minister who lives on a farm in Bucks County, Pa., with his two young children, played by Rory Culkin (one of you-know-who’s brothers) and Abigail Breslin.
“I love putting action heroes in situations where they can’t beat up anybody,” Shaya-malan says.
The writer-director won’t go into specifics, but it is known that Gibson’s world is changed when he discovers a message — an intricate pattern of circles and lines — carved into his crops. Shyamalan chuckles when he’s told the film’s teaser trailer, which debuted during the Super Bowl, makes the movie look a little like the UFO classic “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
“No, it’s more classic, old-school. Sort of the ‘The War of the Worlds’ from one family’s point of view. “In its format, ‘Signs’ is more like ‘The Birds’ and ‘The Night of the Living Dead’ in that the action all centers on one house.” The house involved was built on location in the real Bucks County — not far from the Indian-born director’s home base of suburban Philadelphia.
“It’s a Victorian-style house, with the proportions slightly off, so it has a kind of haunted-house feeling.”
Joaquin Phoenix plays Gibson’s brother, a former minor-league baseball player. Broadway favorite Cherry Jones is the chief of police. “I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging, but all five of the main characters give brilliant performances,” Shyamalan says.
“But you really have to see the movie for yourself.”
Can’t wait.