Shyamalan on Keeping Glass Within Unbreakable's Thriller Tone

Shyamalan on keeping Glass within Unbreakable’s thriller tone

At SDCC 2018 audiences got their first look at Glass, new film from M. Night Shyamalan that serves as a sequel to both his 2000 film Unbreakable and 2016’s Split.

The confrontation fans of the first film have been waiting almost 20 years for has been teased, as the Comic-Con trailer opens with Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson) and David (Bruce Willis) sitting with the new addition of Kevin (James McAvoy); all of whom are being treated by Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulsen) for their conditions that lead them to believe they’re more than just human. Alleging that their identities as super-powered beings are merely a delusion of grandeur, the trailer sets up the tension of doubting a very scary threat if the bad guys team up as Glass aims to bring the beast out of Kevin.

On the press line for Glass, Coming Soon spoke with Shyamalan about the film’s trailer making its debut to the crowds of Hall H and what sort of superhero film they can expect Glass might say in the era of the big blockbuster film.

“For me, they’re almost a different genre, what we’re doing with Split, Unbreakable, and Glass.”

Shyamalan also shared the series was reborn at Comic-Con when the director approached McAvoy to take a look at Split which opened as a film that quietly revealed at the end that it existed in the Unbreakable universe.

“These are primarily thrillers and they’re very much more contained. They’re not CGI driven, they’re very simple and clean. The musculature that those movies have are not what we’re trying to do. The idea of what you don’t see is really what we’re insinuating, it’s the power of that.”

Bringing the worlds of Split and it’s predecessor together is something Shyamalan is excited about. Fans of the original film, which came out after an age of Superhero films like Christopher Reeves Superman and was released before Superhero films that dominate the box office, will be excited to know that the film won’t tip-toe around references to comic books and superheroes like the original Unbreakable.

Shyamalan discussed that on the panel that studio heads didn’t want him to mention those key words to alienate the audience back in the day, but that doesn’t mean that the particular visual style and nuance of the film’s series will be lost. Very present in the trailer are the colors that each character carries with them almost like their own super suits. Shyamalan explained, “The colors were very important obviously. Each character has their own color that they’re kind of drawn to. And so the costume design,the production design and the DP–everyone is forced to use those colors and stay in those palettes. David is green and Elijah is purple and Kevin’s mustard. You’ll see that throughout the piece.”

While not much about the film’s plot and where the characters are was shared to preserve surprises for the film, we did find out a bit more about McAvoy’s performance which the director described as one that becomes bigger in Glass.

“You’ll really see a lot of personalities, James is ridiculous in this movie. He was amazing in Split and I think he’s even better in Glass.”

Glass is set to debut on January 18, 2019.