Even if the Sci Fi Network hadn't admitted to its fakery in putting together "The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan," an alleged documentary about Shyamalan and his supposed supernatural connections, the unrealistic premise and poor performances would've given it away soon enough. How do I know this? Because The Wife and I sat through all three hours of the damn thing tonight with absolutely no knowledge of the network's admission, and pegged it as a fake from about 20 minutes in.
The network announced in December that the reclusive Shyamalan, maker of "The Sixth Sense" and "Signs," had agreed to participate in a documentary about his life to run in connection with this summer's release of his new movie, "The Village."
Sci Fi said last month, however, that Shyamalan had soured on the documentary when the questions got too personal. Documentarians Nathaniel Kahn and Callum Greene pressed on and made a three-hour film, "The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan," without his cooperation, the network said.
The Associated Press wrote about the documentary last month, and other media also ran accounts. In an interview, Greene described how Shyamalan's "cooperation dried up." A network spokesman told the AP that Sci Fi was confident it had legal grounds to air the film and would probably never work with Shyamalan again.
In a news release, Sci Fi said Shyamalan had attempted to shut down production of the "disturbing expose."
It was all a lie, and there is no buried secret, [network president Bonnie] Hammer said Friday.
It's hard to say who comes off looking worse: Shyamalan himself - convincing enough as an annoyed artiste, the filmmakers - who are so ham-handed in their investigative techniques they torpedo any possibility of credibility, or celebs like Johnny Depp and Adrien Brody - going along with the gag and either playing it beautifully (Depp) or atrociously (Brody).
"Guerilla marketing," as the article calls it, only works when the effort is subtle enough to carry the whiff of legitimacy. "The Buried Secret" never had a chance, forcing every supposed startling fact down the audience's throat and stretching an already shopworn storyline out to fill three hours.
Weak writing, lousy acting, and a dull story...sounds like just about all of the Sci Fi Channel's original programming.
We did not smoke it as fast as you did but I did trun to my wife after about 35-40 minutes and remark that this was simply a 3 hour promo for "The Village". As the documentary guy became more and more annoying and over the top and as the thing just seemed to unravel I cried "bullshit"
I'm just kind of surprised that the trailer for 'The Village' spends more time on Shyamalan's previous films than on the current film itself. What's next: "Brett Ratner's Rush Hour 3?"
I want you to post the 'surprise ending' to this movie as soon as you find out, without spoiler warnings. Time to guerrilla un-market.