M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap is just a couple weeks away, and I honestly can’t remember the last time I was genuinely excited for a new Shyamalan movie. I’m always down to try his latest movie—when he misses, he MISSES, but when he hits, he HITS—but this time, it’s more about Josh Hartnett. My Millennial babe is back, baby! The Hartnettaissance has begun!
The Trap premiere was in New York yesterday. Hartnett was accompanied by his wife, Tamsin Egerton, and M. Night Shyamalan, his daughter Saleka Shyamalan, and Ariel Donoghue, who plays the daughter in the film, were all on hand, too. I REALLY like Saleka’s dress. It’s very on point for a singer/songwriter playing a popstar in a movie.
Earlier in the day, Hartnett and the Shyamalans were doing the press rounds:
We can debate the merits of Night’s many movies, but one thing that is not in question is that he has a broad understanding of cinema. But to say he can’t think of a film that has thematically incorporated original songs since Purple Rain? Not since 1984? Spinal Tap not ringing any bells? It’s also from 1984 and the film came with a full album of original songs performed by the fake band from the movie. There’s Walk Hard, another movie-album combo, and more recently, there’s Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, which is from 2016 and came with full Lonely Island album of original songs conceived for the movie.
That’s a bonkers thing for Night to say. It doesn’t happen a lot, but there are other movies than Purple Rain that have full studio albums devised to go with the film narrative. Notably, though, it’s a lot of comedies, so maybe what we’re really learning is that Night doesn’t watch many comedies. Someone on the Trap press tour, please ask some follow-up questions about this. Now I’m worried that M. Night Shyamalan has never seen This Is Spinal Tap.
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