Clint Eastwood & Paul Newman Turned Down This M. Night Shyamalan Film
M. Night Shyamalan's Signs would have been a very different film had casting choices worked out the first time.
Following the one-two punch of The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, M. Night Shyamalan's Signs had the unenviable goal of living up to the legacy that the young filmmaker was creating for himself in Hollywood, and it largely succeeded in doing so (his next film, The Village, however, did not). The film, a modern classic in its own right, is part science fiction nightmare, part horror, part family drama, and part exploration of faith. It's a bold mix that works in the film's favor, especially if one subscribes to the theory that the aliens are, in fact, demons (which corrects the "water" plot hole). The cast is perhaps the film's strongest asset. Both Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin are excellent as the Hess children, bringing a realism to their characters that, thankfully, didn't border on precociousness. Joaquin Phoenix infuses his Merrill Hess with a believable brotherly connection. The film, though, lives and dies with Mel Gibson, and he excels as Graham Hess, a role that calls on him to be a man struggling with his faith, trying to rationalize what's happening, and protecting his family at all costs. And he wasn't even Shyamalan's first, or second choice those were Clint Eastwood and Paul Newman.
