Unbreakable Sequel?

This news is a few days old, but, hey, gimme a break, I’ve been out of town. According to a (relatively) recent interview with MTV.com, M. Night Shyamalama-ding-dong is considering directing a follow-up to his 2000 movie “Unbreakable,” which starred Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson. Explains Shyamalan:

I do love the [comic book movie] genre, I just wanna make sure that I’m able to express who I am. I don’t want to get so lost in the subject that I have to neuter everything that’s me in it, so maybe ‘Unbreakable’ is the comic book thing I should do — I keep coming back to that.

Now, obviously, a lot of people (especially comic book fans) loved “Unbreakable” for its realism and suspenseful tone and whatever other reasons they had, but before everybody loses their shit over this, we have to look at it and wonder, even if Shyamalan wants to make it, if it’s feasible to do so.

Commercially, “Unbreakable” wasn’t nearly as successful as his breakout movie “The Sixth Sense” (which was huuuuge). “Unbreakable” had a production budget of $75 million and ended up grossing just over $90 million domestically. Clearly, not a failure, but not necessarily a picture that would warrant a sequel.

His movies since then haven’t exactly been huge successes, either. Aside from Signs, which posted a healthy amount of money above the $200 million range, he’s had trouble even breaking even on his other films. “The Village” just eked past its production budget, as did last summer’s dreadful “The Happening.” It was only Shyamalan’s 2006 film, “Lady in the Water,” that was unable to gross more at the box-office, domestically, than it cost to make the movie.

The question then becomes, would a studio in its right mind back a guy with such a shaky track record and entrust him with the kind of money it would cost to make a sequel to the first movie, which cost as much as it did way back in 2000? I’m not so certain.

Beyond that, what would be the point in making a sequel? I, for one, think that Mr. Shyamalan is a talent-less hack, and I think that “Unbreakable” is a poorly paced movie with some incredibly stilted and ridiculous dialogue. The premise seems interesting and entertaining at first, but once the final scene hits, it reaches a level of absurdity that seems hard to even fathom.

And, yes, I realize I’m talking about a movie where the main character has super powers.

So, forget it, I say. Make a sequel that people are clamoring to see. Like a follow-up to “Deep Blue Sea.” Trust me, I know Sam Jackson will agree to be in that one. He agrees to anything.

Wait, did he get eaten by a shark in that movie? I can’t remember, but I’m sure he’d sign on anyway.