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M. Night Shyamalan's Breakup With Disney
From: www.writerswrite.com

" M. Night Shyamalan is finally going to reveals the dirty details of his break with long-time partner Disney Studios. In a new book, entitled The Man Who Heard Voices: Or, How M. Night Shyamalan Risked His Career on a Fairy Tale (Gotham), Shyamalan reportedly slices and dices top Disney executives.

Penned by Sports Illustrated writer Michael Bamberger with Shyamalan's blessing and extensive participation, the 278-page book hits stores July 20. That's one day before the theatrical premiere of Shyamalan's new movie, Lady in the Water, which is at the center of the dispute that led him to part ways with Disney.

The $70-million movie, a scary fantasy that stars Paul Giamatti as an apartment building superintendent who rescues a sea nymph he finds in his swimming pool, was ultimately financed by Warner Bros. But arguably as shocking as the movie itself is the way Shyamalan, in the book, disses his former studio. As galleys circulate around town, that more than anything else has people musing about just how fragile relationships between artists and executives can be.

Disney production President Nina Jacobson gets the worst drubbing. Jacobson and Shyamalan enjoyed a close, albeit sometimes combative, relationship. Over six years, she shepherded his four Disney films including "Unbreakable," "Signs" and "The Village." On what would have been their fifth collaboration, their bond so eroded that the two didn't speak for more than a year. At a disastrous dinner in Philadelphia last year, Jacobson delivered a frank critique of the "Lady in the Water" script. When she told him that she and her boss, studio Chairman Dick Cook, didn't "get" the idea, Shyamalan was heartbroken. Things got only worse when she lambasted his inclusion of a mauling of a film critic in the story line and told Shyamalan his decision to cast himself as a visionary writer out to change the world bordered on self-serving.

But Shyamalan gets his revenge on Jacobson in the book, in which he says he had felt for some time that he "had witnessed the decay of her creative vision right before his own wide-open eyes. She didn't want iconoclastic directors. She wanted directors who made money."

Superman smiles a lot, but writer Geoff Johns is working through that. "It's easier to write a character like Batman who's tough and gritty than someone like Superman who?s happy with himself," says Johns, who recently took over the reins of the character?s self-titled comic book. Over nearly 70 years, writers have had the same problem with the Man of Steel: How do you write adventures about a do-gooder? "It?s corny, but Superman is so good that (writing him) is difficult," Johns says.

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"I took the job because I love the character," he says.

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Two months ago, when his first storyline premiered, Johns separated the "super" from the "man." After his last adventure, Superman was powerless and living life as daredevil reporter Clark Kent. For Johns, though, such a starting point allowed him to delve into the man who makes Superman tick. Heading into danger with a cape and a bulletproof chest is one thing. But running headlong into a crisis with no special abilities is altogether different. At the core, though, "I love the optimism that the character embodies," Johns says. For Johns, Superman is truly a man of another era. "He still flies around in the daytime," he says. "He still wears his underwear outside of his pants. He?s the only (comic book) character who can get away with that."

A Paris court found that Stephanie Vergniault had not provided sufficient evidence that the political thriller was based on her screenplay, Oversight. Ms Vergniault, 37, was ordered to pay 3,500 euros ( 2,400) in court costs to Warner Bros and George Clooney's production company Section Eight. Clooney won an Oscar this year for his role in the political thriller.

The film was written and directed by Stephen Gaghan, who also wrote the screenplay for Traffic. He said the script, which investigates the oil industry's relationship with politics, was based on an autobiography by CIA officer Robert Baer. Ms Vergniault also admitted reading Mr Baer's book, but said it was not the source material for the scenes in Syriana that she claimed were copied from her script. The screenwriter had been seeking 2m euros ( 1.4m) in damages from the makers of Syriana.

SAW the show. Hated it, I'm afraid. Said as much, in 800 meticulously chosen words. But lo! Open the paper a few mornings later, and there, for the world to see, is an artful distillation of my review, all those paragraphs pared down to their essence. Well, their essence according to the advertising and marketing specialists hired by the producers. In big type liberally laced with exclamation points, readers would learn that, in fact, "I loved this play!!" Shocking, I know!

Yes, the art of selective quoting is one of the oldest games in the hype business, and readers are generally wise to it. Ellipses are not a good sign, and if an advertisement features quotes from critics pruned to just one word ("Brilliant!" ? Joe Schmo; "Powerful!" ? Betty Burns), chances are good the foliage surrounding them is less fragrant with affection.

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A new tactic seemingly on the rise is the Flagrant Elision of Ellipses. Last spring I reviewed a new play about Peggy Guggenheim called "Woman Before a Glass." The notice was markedly tepid. I called the show, among other things, "a big chunk of theatrical costume jewelry." Undaunted by my faintest of praise, the ad mavens scoured the review for positive ? or even neutral ? wording and strung together the following: "A trip to the Promenade Theater introduces us to the sensational history of Peggy Guggenheim, performed vigorously and meticulously by the formidable Mercedes Ruehl. Smoking, drinking, name-dropping, art, men and the men who make art. Some shindig, no? A trip to Venice! (Italics, and most punctuation, theirs.)

Now, I have written some regrettable paragraphs in my day, but this increasingly free-associative string of phrases seemed to suggest I'd channeled Diana Vreeland at her most deliciously madcap.

Readers can even plug in words, such as "to be or not to be" from "Hamlet," and immediately be taken to that part of the play. The site, which was introduced in conjunction with Google's sponsorship of New York City's "Shakespeare in the Park" performance series, also provides links to related scholarly research, Internet groups and even videos of theater performances of Shakespeare plays. It also encourages users to "take a literary field trip" by searching for London's Shakespeare's Globe Theater on Google Earth, which combines satellite imagery, maps and a search engine to find historic locations around the world.

Google Book Search, the Google product which houses the Shakespeare site, allows users to view books or parts of books through their Web browsers if the copyright has expired or a publisher has given permission to do so.

OPRAH Winfrey has inked a deal to publish a fitness book with her personal trainer Bob Greene in what industry insiders say is the richest nonfiction book deal in history, sources told On The Money.

While sources declined to give an exact price, these people said it is larger than the $12 million advance former President Bill Clinton got to write his autobiography, "My Life," which was published by Knopf in 2004.

Oprah's book will be published by Simon & Schuster in January, and the gathering of publishing types at the annual Book Expo America in Washington, D.C., this weekend was abuzz with speculation about "an embargoed book coming out in January," according to a source.

Utne, which bills itself "the nation's leading digest of alternative ideas" and has a paid circulation of 225,000, was purchased from privately held Lens Publishing Co. Inc. and Nina Rothschild Utne. Nina is the wife of Eric Utne, who founded the magazine in 1984 but then relinquished leadership to Nina in the late 1990s.

Currently the magazine's chair and CEO, Nina Utne will assume the title of editor-at-large under new ownership. And despite Ogden's headquarters in Topeka, Kan., Utne will continue to be put out from its offices in Minneapolis.

"There are no plans for significant changes," Ogden publisher Bryan Welch said in a phone interview. "We are thrilled to be part of the Utne tradition, and [its ownership] makes us the largest and most influential media company in the conscientious-lifestyles and environmental-awareness fields."

Ogden, also privately held, publishes Mother Earth News, Natural Home, Herbs for Health, The Herb Companion and seven special-interest magazines. With Utne, the company said it would continue to reprint "the best articles from more than 2,000 alternative media sources, bringing together the latest ideas and trends emerging in our culture."