Will Smith backs new Shyamalan sci-fi

The Karate Kid

Will Smith may just be the only man alive who liked The Last Airbender – he’s teamed up with director M. Night Shyamalan for the twist-happy director’s new movie, One Thousand A.E.

Not that Smith’s going so far as to star in the film. Instead, his production company Overbook is helping the director develop the sci-fi project as a star vehicle for Smith’s son Jaden, recently seen flipping about in The Karate Kid remake.

For those concerned about Shyamalan’s recent output (and after Airbender , who wouldn’t be?), good news comes with the announcement that Shyamalan will be directing but not writing One Thousand A.E.

Could he have finally learnt from his mistakes, after the scripts for Lady In The Water, The Happening and Airbender were all trounced under the heels of audience members? P’raps, though the fact that Book Of Eli scribe Gary Whitta is doing the scribbling won’t exactly buoy spirits either.

No other information regarding the project is available, except that the script calls for an adult male that will not be played by Big Willie. Still, this one’s definitely shaping up as a more enticing prospect than anything recent Shyamalan’s done.

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.