Shyamalan Has Found His Avatar

First off, just for the sake of clarity, this is not the sci-fi epic that James Cameron has been working on for the past few years. Rather, this is the live-action adaptation of the popular Nickelodeon anime-inspired cartoon that just ended its three-season run earlier this year. EW has some casting updates, including news that the lead part is being offered to "karate star" (not sure what that entails) Noah Ringer after M. Night Shyamalan held open casting calls in Texas for the potential franchise from Paramount. Avatar: The Last Airbender centers on Aang, a young boy who must embrace his destiny as the supremely powerful Avatar and stop the evil Fire Nation from taking over the world.

Those who saw The Happening this past summer will remember it as one of the most bizarrely terrible films in some time. The much-maligned Lady In The Water was a masterwork by comparison. Shyamalan's really puzzled me in the last few years. He's turned in some amazing work in The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, some very good work in Signs and The Village, and then suddenly put out two complete stinkers. Who knows now if he's really fallen off for good, or if he's just trying to shoot his way out of a slump. I'm also surprised Paramount kept him on Avatar, given that it's launching a potential franchise and can be considered a somewhat buzz-worthy project. For those who aren't familiar with the cartoon, it's actually a shockingly good series that made the interesting choice to end after its third season, despite a very successful first two (the third one had its scheduling disrupted in all sorts of ways due to the Writer's Strike). Probably the best cartoon I've seen since Batman: The Animated Series ran from the early-to-mid 90s, it's definitely worth checking out.