On this day in 2010, Paramount Pictures released the very first live action film adaptation of a Nickelodeon animated series, which was Avatar: The Last Airbender. Though the movie had to be titled The Last Airbender because of James Cameron’s at the time recently released (and unrelated) 2009 science fiction film, Avatar. The story followed 12-year-old Aang and his friends, who must bring peace and harmony to the world by ending the Fire Nation's 100-year war with the Water Tribe, Earth Kingdom, and Air Nomads. Fans of the animated series were hyped up (and somewhat skeptical) for months leading up to the release. Yet, by the time they saw the movie, many of them felt betrayed by the end results of both the adaptation and film as a whole, and quickly blamed writer/director M. Night Shyamalan for everything. So how did an animated TV franchise with such promising big screen potential end up stumbling to the ground? Rather than just jumping to conclusions, let’s take a deep dive into what exactly happened behind the scenes.
When Scott Aversano was named President of the MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies Brand division for Paramount Pictures in 2006, he was tasked with integrating the Viacom cable brands’ intellectual property and creators with the feature division at Paramount as well as overseeing the label’s annual slate of films. Which included the acquisition of literary properties, development, and production of motion pictures. One property he definitely had his eye on was Avatar: The Last Airbender. Scott first saw the original animated series while he was on vacation. When he came back to Los Angeles, he went to MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies saying “This is a really interesting property. I think it would make a fantastic film.” However, the series was so new at the time, he didn’t believe executives already felt comfortable saying “Let's try to expand this into a feature film.” Yet as president, it was a much easier conversation with himself. Scott thought the series was absolutely emblematic of the kind of things that Nickelodeon as a family movie brand could bring to a film production. One of the things creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko did that he thought was exceptional and made it possible for a conversation about the movie to begin was the core idea of their central character, the Avatar, and that the Avatar was a figure who had a fully elaborated mythology that had some religious components, some philosophical components, and some Kung Fu martial arts components to it. He felt Mike & Bryan had done such an exceptional job of filling out the sort of TV bible of that world that it lent enormous possibilities to a feature film. During the time Scott was running that division of the studio, everyone was enormously enthusiastic about the project. Paramount Pictures chairman and CEO at the time, Brad Grey, thought it would be an ideal way to bring the Nickelodeon movie brand to the forefront of his media strategy for Paramount and Avatar: The Last Airbender felt like a great property to do so with.
Filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan, who was big around the beginning of the millennium with his suspense thrillers, 1999’s The Sixth Sense, 2000’s Unbreakable, and 2002’s Signs, later came on board to write, direct, and produce the movie. He first came across the series from one of his daughters, who was 7 years old at the time, and was also very obsessed with the show. Though for a while, Night wasn’t paying any attention to it at all. She later went to him about wanting to be Katara for Halloween, but he had no idea what she was talking about. When they all went to their local video store one day, his daughter noticed that the first season was on DVD, so she asked if she could get it, and so she did. After dinner one evening, Night and his family all had a marathon of the series together. He not only became a fan of the show himself, but he also saw its cinematic potential. Night was previously approached by different studios about a few pre-existing properties before such as Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Life of Pi, but The Last Airbender marked the first time he ever ended up writing and directing a movie that was based on an idea he did not originate. Though he did have a shared writing credit on the 1999 film adaptation of the E.B. White novel, Stuart Little, directed by Rob Minkoff.
When M. Night Shyamalan came into the process, it became clear that they were going to need producers who would be able to deliver the highest caliber film possible and also had a relationship with Night. This is where Kathleen Kennedy & Frank Marshall both came in. They had not only done The Sixth Sense and Signs with Night, but they were also just coming off of making The Spiderwick Chronicles, Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with Paramount. Not to mention that they both had a long history of producing films with Steven Spielberg such as 1982's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, 1985's The Color Purple, 1987's Empire of the Sun, 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit, as well as the Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park franchises. So they became the people Scott Aversano felt would make the greatest producers for such an enormous project as The Last Airbender. The creative team consisted of nine-time Oscar nominated composer James Newton Howard, production designer Philip Messina (who went on to design sets for all of The Hunger Games films), three-time Oscar nominated costume designer Judianna Makovsky (who went on to work with Messina again on the first Hunger Games movie), cinematographer Andrew Lesnie (who had won an Oscar for his work on The Lord of the Rings trilogy), and editor Conrad Buff (who had won an Oscar for his work on 1997's Titanic).
When the film was in its earliest stages, creators Mike & Bryan met with Night, and they were all very excited to get things going. They even got to film an interview together, which especially showed Night’s enthusiasm for the animated series.
When Scott Aversano was named President of the MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies Brand division for Paramount Pictures in 2006, he was tasked with integrating the Viacom cable brands’ intellectual property and creators with the feature division at Paramount as well as overseeing the label’s annual slate of films. Which included the acquisition of literary properties, development, and production of motion pictures. One property he definitely had his eye on was Avatar: The Last Airbender. Scott first saw the original animated series while he was on vacation. When he came back to Los Angeles, he went to MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies saying “This is a really interesting property. I think it would make a fantastic film.” However, the series was so new at the time, he didn’t believe executives already felt comfortable saying “Let's try to expand this into a feature film.” Yet as president, it was a much easier conversation with himself. Scott thought the series was absolutely emblematic of the kind of things that Nickelodeon as a family movie brand could bring to a film production. One of the things creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko did that he thought was exceptional and made it possible for a conversation about the movie to begin was the core idea of their central character, the Avatar, and that the Avatar was a figure who had a fully elaborated mythology that had some religious components, some philosophical components, and some Kung Fu martial arts components to it. He felt Mike & Bryan had done such an exceptional job of filling out the sort of TV bible of that world that it lent enormous possibilities to a feature film. During the time Scott was running that division of the studio, everyone was enormously enthusiastic about the project. Paramount Pictures chairman and CEO at the time, Brad Grey, thought it would be an ideal way to bring the Nickelodeon movie brand to the forefront of his media strategy for Paramount and Avatar: The Last Airbender felt like a great property to do so with.
Filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan, who was big around the beginning of the millennium with his suspense thrillers, 1999’s The Sixth Sense, 2000’s Unbreakable, and 2002’s Signs, later came on board to write, direct, and produce the movie. He first came across the series from one of his daughters, who was 7 years old at the time, and was also very obsessed with the show. Though for a while, Night wasn’t paying any attention to it at all. She later went to him about wanting to be Katara for Halloween, but he had no idea what she was talking about. When they all went to their local video store one day, his daughter noticed that the first season was on DVD, so she asked if she could get it, and so she did. After dinner one evening, Night and his family all had a marathon of the series together. He not only became a fan of the show himself, but he also saw its cinematic potential. Night was previously approached by different studios about a few pre-existing properties before such as Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Life of Pi, but The Last Airbender marked the first time he ever ended up writing and directing a movie that was based on an idea he did not originate. Though he did have a shared writing credit on the 1999 film adaptation of the E.B. White novel, Stuart Little, directed by Rob Minkoff.
When M. Night Shyamalan came into the process, it became clear that they were going to need producers who would be able to deliver the highest caliber film possible and also had a relationship with Night. This is where Kathleen Kennedy & Frank Marshall both came in. They had not only done The Sixth Sense and Signs with Night, but they were also just coming off of making The Spiderwick Chronicles, Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with Paramount. Not to mention that they both had a long history of producing films with Steven Spielberg such as 1982's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, 1985's The Color Purple, 1987's Empire of the Sun, 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit, as well as the Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park franchises. So they became the people Scott Aversano felt would make the greatest producers for such an enormous project as The Last Airbender. The creative team consisted of nine-time Oscar nominated composer James Newton Howard, production designer Philip Messina (who went on to design sets for all of The Hunger Games films), three-time Oscar nominated costume designer Judianna Makovsky (who went on to work with Messina again on the first Hunger Games movie), cinematographer Andrew Lesnie (who had won an Oscar for his work on The Lord of the Rings trilogy), and editor Conrad Buff (who had won an Oscar for his work on 1997's Titanic).
When the film was in its earliest stages, creators Mike & Bryan met with Night, and they were all very excited to get things going. They even got to film an interview together, which especially showed Night’s enthusiasm for the animated series.
M. Night Shyamalan’s initial script was about 9 hours long, and the second draft that he wrote was almost 3 hours. Which is actually typical as most original drafts for movies are way longer than the final product. The screenwriter writes everything they want to get out of their heads and then go back in to weed out what’s not needed and rewrite stuff to take things like montages and other editing processes into account.
Though according to a member of an Avatar forum by the name of Kyatto (who claimed to have worked on the film behind the scenes), what it came down to was that Night really was the only one who knew the show and what he was doing. The producers, who are actually in charge of at least 80% of production including casting,…not so much. They weren't as familiar with the animated series, nor was the (apparent) ghostwriter who did the final screenplay. Legally, the producers are the head of a movie production, not the director, who must align his vision to theirs. Yes, Night was also one of the producers, but he still had a duty to make long, careful consideration and decisions with the other producers. With multiple producers heading up a big budget film, visions will get compromised, more so than the animated series with only Mike and Bryan producing. The producers must also sell the movie to the studios, their real end-customer. While most people like to believe otherwise, the studios are entitled to ‘improve’ these visions, because they are ultimately the ones financing the film and distributing it to the movie-going public. Night’s ego persona didn’t help nor his previous reputation on his recent films at the time, so he went about justifying the executives’ decisions the wrong way (though he may or may not have been persuaded to).
Actress Nicola Peltz auditioned for the role of Katara in July 2008 through her mother’s connections with the producers. She wore a kimono for the audition, to which Night joked that she just woke up and came in with her pajamas (her audition was apparently subpar at best). The connections Nicola’s parents had with the producers became stronger after that. Her dad was at a human rights fundraiser with Marshall and Kennedy in October 2008 and at an arts center fundraiser with Shyamalan's family in November of that year. While Night did mention in interviews leading up to the film's release that he would not have made the movie without her, that was likely for promotional purposes. In having to cast Nicola as Katara, they had to cast a guy who could pass as her brother, Sokka. Thus Twilight alum Jackson Rathbone came in, and apparently gave a pretty good audition. For the main character of Aang, Noah Ringer submitted in a video of himself doing martial arts with a shaved head. He was the only one who openly auditioned and was chosen based on talent. Though throughout the process, Noah needed extra help acting because he was a more experienced martial artist and had never acted before in his life. Plus, a lot of the movie was green screened, so he was talking to air a lot of the time. Experienced adults have a hard time doing that, let alone an inexperienced kid.
Though since they had two unknown kids and a guy who played a minor character in The Twilight Saga cast in a multimillion dollar tentpole studio film, Paramount needed a name. Jesse McCartney was originally announced for the role of Prince Zuko, but then controversy arose due to the fact that four white kids were cast as what are supposed to be Asian and/or Indigenous characters. While several white performers actually played Asian characters in the animated series, it's an easier thing to get away with in that medium because in animation, they're not casting with their eyes, they're casting with their ears. Jesse ended up getting replaced at the last minute which he claimed in a 2020 interview with People magazine was for "political reasons".
Even then, the producers still needed a name in the cast, but it couldn’t be another white kid. Paramount was not willing to finance the movie without someone as marketable as Jesse, even though they would've only been counting on his popularity at the time as a teen pop singer. Meanwhile, Dev Patel, a trained actor and martial arts practitioner who had just come off of his breakout role in the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire, was willing to sign on. Had he not signed up at the last minute, Paramount would have pulled the plug just like Warner Brothers did with Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain when Brad Pitt walked out shortly before principal photography was about to begin in 2002 (before it was eventually resurrected and released in 2006 with Hugh Jackman in the starring role). In getting Dev Patel, they had to make the rest of the Fire Nation match by casting Indian/Middle Eastern actors. So therefore, The Last Airbender accidentally ended up becoming a white savior movie.
In a March 2020 interview with Bustle, Giancarlo Volpe, who was a storyboard artist and director on the original series, said "where they sort of went wrong was that the characters and casting weren't really right. I thought that was unfortunate. I've said this multiple times: if there was ever any doubt that Avatar took place in sort of a mythical Asia or mythical China... it absolutely did. Don't let anyone tell you differently. And to cast it differently was an odd choice." I will say that if I was charge of casting this movie, I would've done something similar to what they did with the Harry Potter films by casting Asian child/young adult actors with a blank slate for the child/young adult characters, and find more established Asian actors for the adult roles like Ken Watanabe as Admiral Zhao, Wes Studi as Master Pakku, and Michelle Yeoh as Avatar Kyoshi.
As M. Night Shyamalan is a man of Asian descent, he felt his pronunciations of the names, Aang, Sokka, and Iroh, as well as the word Avatar, were more ‘authentic’ to how they're originally pronounced. When the show first came out, a lot of people (especially those with an anime background) used “ee-roh” for “Iroh”, “ahng” for “Aang”, “soh-ka” for “Sokka”, etc. Though when the show became watched enough and the westernized names were heard enough, most people stopped using the original Asian pronunciations. But if you came to the show hearing Asian names pronounced differently, it does throw you off. To some Asians, the pronunciations of the names are offensive in the cartoon, and to fans of the show, the pronunciations in the movie are offensive because they’re not accurate to the source material. Maybe John Travolta should try pronouncing those names. In response to that particular difference, actor Dante Basco, who voiced Prince Zuko in the animated series, felt that if they were going for authenticity regarding the character names, then why were the actors playing them white?.
Obviously, a story about people manipulating elements couldn’t be believably done with in camera practical effects, so the studio had to rebudget and give most of the money to Industrial Light & Magic for post production. ILM was rushed despite most of the movie’s look being left up to them. Under the supervision of Pablo Helman (who was most recently Oscar nominated for the de-aging effects work in Martin Scorsese's The Irishman), they apparently had novice directors hired by the producers to oversee that process. Keep in mind that there are way more people working on a live action film than just an animated series, so it’s difficult to keep tabs on every last detail. Sadly at that point, Night was just tired of arguing with the overheads, gave up, and collected his paycheck.
Originally, Paramount wasn’t planning to release The Last Airbender in 3D at all, but as 3D was becoming so huge because of James Cameron’s Avatar, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, and the first How to Train Your Dragon, the studio decided at the last minute to spend two whole months converting the movie into 3D just like the at the time recently released remake of Clash of the Titans. In order to make The Last Airbender’s intended release date of the Fourth of July weekend, Paramount ended up cutting 30 minutes worth of footage in order to save time and money on the post-converted 3D. Thus, the reason why the movie's running time ended up being 1 hour and 35 minutes long (and that's not counting the eight minute end credits sequence). The most notable scenes that were cut included plot points about Katara’s missing necklace and the Kyoshi Warriors (with actress Jessica Jade Andres cast as their leader, Suki). To fill in the gaps, Nicola Peltz was brought in to record some additional voice over narrations. In fact, a friend of mine did a YouTube video on what he speculated would be the opening to the film from having seen certain shots from the trailers and commercials as well as after having read the movie novelization. Yet, all of those shots didn’t even end up making the final cut.
Though according to a member of an Avatar forum by the name of Kyatto (who claimed to have worked on the film behind the scenes), what it came down to was that Night really was the only one who knew the show and what he was doing. The producers, who are actually in charge of at least 80% of production including casting,…not so much. They weren't as familiar with the animated series, nor was the (apparent) ghostwriter who did the final screenplay. Legally, the producers are the head of a movie production, not the director, who must align his vision to theirs. Yes, Night was also one of the producers, but he still had a duty to make long, careful consideration and decisions with the other producers. With multiple producers heading up a big budget film, visions will get compromised, more so than the animated series with only Mike and Bryan producing. The producers must also sell the movie to the studios, their real end-customer. While most people like to believe otherwise, the studios are entitled to ‘improve’ these visions, because they are ultimately the ones financing the film and distributing it to the movie-going public. Night’s ego persona didn’t help nor his previous reputation on his recent films at the time, so he went about justifying the executives’ decisions the wrong way (though he may or may not have been persuaded to).
Actress Nicola Peltz auditioned for the role of Katara in July 2008 through her mother’s connections with the producers. She wore a kimono for the audition, to which Night joked that she just woke up and came in with her pajamas (her audition was apparently subpar at best). The connections Nicola’s parents had with the producers became stronger after that. Her dad was at a human rights fundraiser with Marshall and Kennedy in October 2008 and at an arts center fundraiser with Shyamalan's family in November of that year. While Night did mention in interviews leading up to the film's release that he would not have made the movie without her, that was likely for promotional purposes. In having to cast Nicola as Katara, they had to cast a guy who could pass as her brother, Sokka. Thus Twilight alum Jackson Rathbone came in, and apparently gave a pretty good audition. For the main character of Aang, Noah Ringer submitted in a video of himself doing martial arts with a shaved head. He was the only one who openly auditioned and was chosen based on talent. Though throughout the process, Noah needed extra help acting because he was a more experienced martial artist and had never acted before in his life. Plus, a lot of the movie was green screened, so he was talking to air a lot of the time. Experienced adults have a hard time doing that, let alone an inexperienced kid.
Though since they had two unknown kids and a guy who played a minor character in The Twilight Saga cast in a multimillion dollar tentpole studio film, Paramount needed a name. Jesse McCartney was originally announced for the role of Prince Zuko, but then controversy arose due to the fact that four white kids were cast as what are supposed to be Asian and/or Indigenous characters. While several white performers actually played Asian characters in the animated series, it's an easier thing to get away with in that medium because in animation, they're not casting with their eyes, they're casting with their ears. Jesse ended up getting replaced at the last minute which he claimed in a 2020 interview with People magazine was for "political reasons".
Even then, the producers still needed a name in the cast, but it couldn’t be another white kid. Paramount was not willing to finance the movie without someone as marketable as Jesse, even though they would've only been counting on his popularity at the time as a teen pop singer. Meanwhile, Dev Patel, a trained actor and martial arts practitioner who had just come off of his breakout role in the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire, was willing to sign on. Had he not signed up at the last minute, Paramount would have pulled the plug just like Warner Brothers did with Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain when Brad Pitt walked out shortly before principal photography was about to begin in 2002 (before it was eventually resurrected and released in 2006 with Hugh Jackman in the starring role). In getting Dev Patel, they had to make the rest of the Fire Nation match by casting Indian/Middle Eastern actors. So therefore, The Last Airbender accidentally ended up becoming a white savior movie.
In a March 2020 interview with Bustle, Giancarlo Volpe, who was a storyboard artist and director on the original series, said "where they sort of went wrong was that the characters and casting weren't really right. I thought that was unfortunate. I've said this multiple times: if there was ever any doubt that Avatar took place in sort of a mythical Asia or mythical China... it absolutely did. Don't let anyone tell you differently. And to cast it differently was an odd choice." I will say that if I was charge of casting this movie, I would've done something similar to what they did with the Harry Potter films by casting Asian child/young adult actors with a blank slate for the child/young adult characters, and find more established Asian actors for the adult roles like Ken Watanabe as Admiral Zhao, Wes Studi as Master Pakku, and Michelle Yeoh as Avatar Kyoshi.
As M. Night Shyamalan is a man of Asian descent, he felt his pronunciations of the names, Aang, Sokka, and Iroh, as well as the word Avatar, were more ‘authentic’ to how they're originally pronounced. When the show first came out, a lot of people (especially those with an anime background) used “ee-roh” for “Iroh”, “ahng” for “Aang”, “soh-ka” for “Sokka”, etc. Though when the show became watched enough and the westernized names were heard enough, most people stopped using the original Asian pronunciations. But if you came to the show hearing Asian names pronounced differently, it does throw you off. To some Asians, the pronunciations of the names are offensive in the cartoon, and to fans of the show, the pronunciations in the movie are offensive because they’re not accurate to the source material. Maybe John Travolta should try pronouncing those names. In response to that particular difference, actor Dante Basco, who voiced Prince Zuko in the animated series, felt that if they were going for authenticity regarding the character names, then why were the actors playing them white?.
Obviously, a story about people manipulating elements couldn’t be believably done with in camera practical effects, so the studio had to rebudget and give most of the money to Industrial Light & Magic for post production. ILM was rushed despite most of the movie’s look being left up to them. Under the supervision of Pablo Helman (who was most recently Oscar nominated for the de-aging effects work in Martin Scorsese's The Irishman), they apparently had novice directors hired by the producers to oversee that process. Keep in mind that there are way more people working on a live action film than just an animated series, so it’s difficult to keep tabs on every last detail. Sadly at that point, Night was just tired of arguing with the overheads, gave up, and collected his paycheck.
Originally, Paramount wasn’t planning to release The Last Airbender in 3D at all, but as 3D was becoming so huge because of James Cameron’s Avatar, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, and the first How to Train Your Dragon, the studio decided at the last minute to spend two whole months converting the movie into 3D just like the at the time recently released remake of Clash of the Titans. In order to make The Last Airbender’s intended release date of the Fourth of July weekend, Paramount ended up cutting 30 minutes worth of footage in order to save time and money on the post-converted 3D. Thus, the reason why the movie's running time ended up being 1 hour and 35 minutes long (and that's not counting the eight minute end credits sequence). The most notable scenes that were cut included plot points about Katara’s missing necklace and the Kyoshi Warriors (with actress Jessica Jade Andres cast as their leader, Suki). To fill in the gaps, Nicola Peltz was brought in to record some additional voice over narrations. In fact, a friend of mine did a YouTube video on what he speculated would be the opening to the film from having seen certain shots from the trailers and commercials as well as after having read the movie novelization. Yet, all of those shots didn’t even end up making the final cut.
The Last Airbender was released in movie theaters nationwide on July 1st, 2010 (though it was originally scheduled for July 2nd, but the date was moved up a notch). Despite opening up against The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, the film ended up coming in second place at the box office opening weekend with a gross of $40,325,019. On a production budget of $150,000,000, The Last Airbender made over $319,700,000 at the worldwide box office. I know a lot of people argue that the movie's disastrous reception was what stopped the franchise from moving forward on the big screen, but to the studios, what it really all comes down to is how much money they end up making. While the film itself did OK financially, keep in mind that another $130,000,000 was spent on advertising, which would bring a total of $280,000,000 spent on one movie. Therefore, The Last Airbender needed to make at least $560,000,000 to turn a profit. Yet, it didn’t really make as much to convince Paramount to move forward with any sequels.
Creators Michael Dante DiMartino & Bryan Konietzko had little say in the film despite being listed as executive producers. The project apparently ended up moving forward without either one of them even being consulted about it. In a podcast interview from 2014, Konietzko revealed that "A) We didn't want it to be done at all. Before anyone was attached, we didn't want it. And then B) If it was going to be done, we wanted to do it, but they weren't going to let us. C) When they attached Night, we just thought, 'Well, this is what we've been dealt. We'll just offer help when it's asked of us, and if it's not, we'll stay out of the way.' In the beginning, it was more positive and we offered help, but then we had a big falling out." They’ve even mentioned how they gave a lot of input that went nowhere as it all got pushed to the wayside. The actual producers didn’t know what they were dealing with and were probably only interested in a quick buck. Paramount only wanted the final product out as quickly as possible and the money it would presumably make them. If the whole movie was Night’s fault entirely, it wouldn’t have even gotten off the ground at all. He may not share any behind the scenes drama while promoting the film, but keep in mind that not every piece of information you'll get from the cast and crew as a movie is being released is going to be accurate.
When M. Night Shyamalan gave the Ashok C. Sani Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence lecture at NYU's Stern School of Business on April 16th, 2019, he revealed that he actually regretted taking on The Last Airbender as well as his followup, 2013's After Earth. He said “I did a couple huge, big-budget CGI movies. There has always been this inexorable pull to join the group, a constant seduction in the form of whatever you want to tally, in the form of money, or safety, ease, not getting criticized. I did these movies, and I rightfully got crushed, because they rightfully said, ‘You don’t believe in yourself, you don’t believe in your own voice, and you don’t believe in your values.’ I felt really lost. It just didn't work. There's probably something Darwinian about all this.” When Night went on to make 2015’s The Visit, he made the decision to begin investing in his own productions as "an attempt to regain artistic control" after his recent movies at the time had been denied final cut, and were even taken away from him in post-production. He said “I pay for my movies now. After this 10-year period of working at studios on junk movies, I was not happy.” Seeing how more successful he's been in recent years with The Visit, 2017's Split, as well as the Apple TV+ series, Servant, turns out that he’s much better off doing smaller scaled projects as opposed to working as a director for hire on big studio films.
On September 18th, 2018, Netflix, in partnership with Nickelodeon, announced plans to produce a live action Avatar: The Last Airbender TV series with the original creators, Michael Dante DiMartino & Bryan Konietzko, on board as showrunners. They both said in a press release “We’re thrilled for the opportunity to helm this live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender. We can’t wait to realize Aang’s world as cinematically as we always imagined it to be, and with a culturally appropriate, non-whitewashed cast. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance to build upon everyone’s great work on the original animated series and go even deeper into the characters, story, action, and world-building. Netflix is wholly dedicated to manifesting our vision for this retelling, and we’re incredibly grateful to be partnering with them.”
This announcement fits in with a recent trend of taking properties that didn't quite succeed as a movie, but giving them another shot as a TV show. Examples of this include A Series of Unfortunate Events, which previously adapted the first three novels of Daniel Handler’s series into one movie. While the film did OK at the box office when it came out in 2004, plans for a sequel were put on hold for years until Netflix acquired the rights to adapt the entire series for television. Not to mention that the first installment of author Philip Pullman’s fantasy trilogy, His Dark Materials, was previously adapted for the big screen in 2007 under the title of The Golden Compass. Yet, the movie ended up underperforming at the box office, which led to New Line Cinema canceling any plans for further installments. The series was later given a second with a TV show that premiered on BBC One and HBO in 2019. In fact, the critical disappointment of the film was actually one of the reasons why author George R.R. Martin wanted Game of Thrones to be adapted into a TV series as opposed to a movie.
Though on August 12th, 2020, Michael Dante DiMartino & Bryan Konietzko announced on both of their individual social media accounts that they had left the show over creative differences. They said that despite Netflix publicly announcing that they were going to support their vision, there was no follow-through on that promise. While no official announcement has been revealed yet as to who'll be taking over as showrunner, it was reported back in February of 2021 that it will be Albert Kim, who has worked on different TV shows such as Leverage, Nikita, and Sleepy Hollow.
While Mike & Bryan are no longer working on the live action Netflix series, they are now both back at Nickelodeon running a new production company titled Avatar Studios. They plan to produce content for platforms such as Paramount+ and Nickelodeon set in the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe (similar to how LucasFilm is producing different TV shows set in the Star Wars universe for Disney+). Though the first project will be an animated theatrical film that is set to start production later this year.
Creators Michael Dante DiMartino & Bryan Konietzko had little say in the film despite being listed as executive producers. The project apparently ended up moving forward without either one of them even being consulted about it. In a podcast interview from 2014, Konietzko revealed that "A) We didn't want it to be done at all. Before anyone was attached, we didn't want it. And then B) If it was going to be done, we wanted to do it, but they weren't going to let us. C) When they attached Night, we just thought, 'Well, this is what we've been dealt. We'll just offer help when it's asked of us, and if it's not, we'll stay out of the way.' In the beginning, it was more positive and we offered help, but then we had a big falling out." They’ve even mentioned how they gave a lot of input that went nowhere as it all got pushed to the wayside. The actual producers didn’t know what they were dealing with and were probably only interested in a quick buck. Paramount only wanted the final product out as quickly as possible and the money it would presumably make them. If the whole movie was Night’s fault entirely, it wouldn’t have even gotten off the ground at all. He may not share any behind the scenes drama while promoting the film, but keep in mind that not every piece of information you'll get from the cast and crew as a movie is being released is going to be accurate.
When M. Night Shyamalan gave the Ashok C. Sani Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence lecture at NYU's Stern School of Business on April 16th, 2019, he revealed that he actually regretted taking on The Last Airbender as well as his followup, 2013's After Earth. He said “I did a couple huge, big-budget CGI movies. There has always been this inexorable pull to join the group, a constant seduction in the form of whatever you want to tally, in the form of money, or safety, ease, not getting criticized. I did these movies, and I rightfully got crushed, because they rightfully said, ‘You don’t believe in yourself, you don’t believe in your own voice, and you don’t believe in your values.’ I felt really lost. It just didn't work. There's probably something Darwinian about all this.” When Night went on to make 2015’s The Visit, he made the decision to begin investing in his own productions as "an attempt to regain artistic control" after his recent movies at the time had been denied final cut, and were even taken away from him in post-production. He said “I pay for my movies now. After this 10-year period of working at studios on junk movies, I was not happy.” Seeing how more successful he's been in recent years with The Visit, 2017's Split, as well as the Apple TV+ series, Servant, turns out that he’s much better off doing smaller scaled projects as opposed to working as a director for hire on big studio films.
On September 18th, 2018, Netflix, in partnership with Nickelodeon, announced plans to produce a live action Avatar: The Last Airbender TV series with the original creators, Michael Dante DiMartino & Bryan Konietzko, on board as showrunners. They both said in a press release “We’re thrilled for the opportunity to helm this live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender. We can’t wait to realize Aang’s world as cinematically as we always imagined it to be, and with a culturally appropriate, non-whitewashed cast. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance to build upon everyone’s great work on the original animated series and go even deeper into the characters, story, action, and world-building. Netflix is wholly dedicated to manifesting our vision for this retelling, and we’re incredibly grateful to be partnering with them.”
This announcement fits in with a recent trend of taking properties that didn't quite succeed as a movie, but giving them another shot as a TV show. Examples of this include A Series of Unfortunate Events, which previously adapted the first three novels of Daniel Handler’s series into one movie. While the film did OK at the box office when it came out in 2004, plans for a sequel were put on hold for years until Netflix acquired the rights to adapt the entire series for television. Not to mention that the first installment of author Philip Pullman’s fantasy trilogy, His Dark Materials, was previously adapted for the big screen in 2007 under the title of The Golden Compass. Yet, the movie ended up underperforming at the box office, which led to New Line Cinema canceling any plans for further installments. The series was later given a second with a TV show that premiered on BBC One and HBO in 2019. In fact, the critical disappointment of the film was actually one of the reasons why author George R.R. Martin wanted Game of Thrones to be adapted into a TV series as opposed to a movie.
Though on August 12th, 2020, Michael Dante DiMartino & Bryan Konietzko announced on both of their individual social media accounts that they had left the show over creative differences. They said that despite Netflix publicly announcing that they were going to support their vision, there was no follow-through on that promise. While no official announcement has been revealed yet as to who'll be taking over as showrunner, it was reported back in February of 2021 that it will be Albert Kim, who has worked on different TV shows such as Leverage, Nikita, and Sleepy Hollow.
While Mike & Bryan are no longer working on the live action Netflix series, they are now both back at Nickelodeon running a new production company titled Avatar Studios. They plan to produce content for platforms such as Paramount+ and Nickelodeon set in the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe (similar to how LucasFilm is producing different TV shows set in the Star Wars universe for Disney+). Though the first project will be an animated theatrical film that is set to start production later this year.