M. Night Shyamalan’s next TV series is the game adaptation you never saw coming

Apparently, we don’t have to “ask again later” about a potential project based on the truth-telling children’s toy Magic 8 Ball, because M. Night Shyamalan is directing the upcoming Magic 8 Ball TV show.

In a post on InstagramShyamalan, whose other major TV project, Apple’s “Servant,” wraps in 2023, posted a photo of the titular game above the script for the Magic 8 Ball TV pilot directed and written by Brad Falchuk. For starters, Falchuk is known as a frequent collaborator with Ryan Murphy who has worked on shows like “Glee,” “American Horror Story,” “Pose,” and “Scream Queens.”

“I’ve been working on this for a few years… who’s involved?” Shyamalan asked in his post, using the hashtags “#ItsCertain” and “Magic8Ball.” Now, I know what you’re thinking, especially if you’ve seen the Emmy-winning comedy “The Studio” this year: Isn’t this creatively bankrupt, even by Hollywood standards? On the one hand, it is, Although the movie Magic 8 Ball was released in 2019 under the umbrella of Blumhouse Productions (There was no further information on that, as of this writing.) Although based on a toy, Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” became very popular and unexpectedly beloved. On the other hand, the idea of ​​a Magic 8 Ball TV show is absolutely ridiculous, and here’s why The exact reasonI think my colleague Philly Shyamalan is the perfect person to lead it.

If you needed proof that a Magic 8 Ball TV series could actually be fun if it was directed by someone as smart as M. Night Shyamalan, look no further than “Trap,” the writer-director’s 2024 film that basically asked, “What if Silence of the Lambs happened on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour?” (This is not a guess on my part; Shyamalan said that was his concept for the filmany Rocks.) There’s no doubt about that “The Trap” is Shyamalan’s funniest film to date. Although the author has certainly displayed a dark sense of humor throughout his works, “Trap” is often overtly funny, especially since Josh Hartnett So Incredibly good as the film’s central character (and main villain) Cooper Abbott.

Under Shyamalan’s careful supervision, Hartnett brings in Cooper, a firefighter who is also a father It just happens To be a serial killer from the Philadelphia area who goes by the name “The Butcher”, fully brought to life – and because we learn very early in the film that Cooper and the Butcher are one and the same, the audience must accompany him on the journey as he attempts to evade the authorities while simultaneously babysitting his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) around a concert given by pop star Lady Raven. (The pop star is played, amusingly, by Shyamalan’s daughter, Salika Knight.) Calling Cooper scheming is a huge understatement, and Shyamalan already has a scrawny Hartnett. All the way in Because of its strangeness, it gives the film an exhilarating and hysterically funny feeling and Incredibly disturbing. Shyamalan is a one-of-a-kind director who concocts films like “Trap,” so excuse me for saying that I’m strangely excited to see where he takes this Magic 8 Ball project.

Then again, if you, like me and a lot of other people, have watched and enjoyed the movie “The Studio,” which features a whole story about the terrible Kool-Aid movie, then this all seems a little strange, even kind of ominous. Is this all there is to Hollywood anymore? Instead of just rebooting things by slapping the word “young” in front of a character’s name like “Young Sheldon,” are executives just digging into their old toy boxes and greenlighting movies and TV shows based on everything they see? To some extent, yes, they are We are Doing so, especially after the crazy, truly wonderful success of 2023’s “Barbie” movie. People had their doubts, but after Greta Gerwig produced a heartfelt spectacle centered around Barbie’s (Margot Robbie) journey of self-actualization and Ken’s (Ryan Gosling) ill-considered flirtation with the patriarchy, Barbie has made more than a billion dollars and It received a nomination for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Games movies He can Work if there’s an interesting director behind them, apparently. (The A24 film “Barney” with Daniel Kaluuya on its creative team also comes to mind (Fingers crossed for that.)

I’m in two minds about this. On the one hand, if we’re using the fictional movie Kool-Aid as an example, this all sounds weird and bad. But I’m going to dust off my optimistic hat for just a second. on last On the other hand, these terrible concepts are handed to directors who take big swings and refuse to play it safe; Say what you will about M. Night Shyamalan, but that guy did it never I played it safe, for better (“unbreakable”) and for worse (“event”). Maybe the Magic 8 Ball series will be terrible. Maybe it would be a fun diversion. However, we can expect at least one thing: another big swing from Shyamalan’s delightfully twisted mind.