M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap comes out this summer (August 2). It’s about a serial killer, The Butcher, who takes his daughter to a concert only to find out that the whole thing is set-up to entrap him. Josh Hartnett plays the dad/serial killer, only it’s an M. Night Shyamalan original story, so you know there are some twists and turns. For the last decade, Night has been self-financing his films and eschewing the studio system, although he does have some studio support with distribution and marketing. He largely works outside of the system and creates his own stories nowadays, having been badly burned by his previous forays into studio work. To promote Trap, Night recently spoke to Empire about his pitch for the film and why he believes in original stories.

‘Trap’ an idea that can be boiled down to a simple pitch from Shyamalan: “What if The Silence Of The Lambs happened at a Taylor Swift concert?” Boom.

As Shyamalan tells Empire, Trap was inspired in part by the real ‘Operation Flagship’ – a 1985 plot in which several fugitives were offered free NFL tickets, and the chance to win an all-expenses-paid Super Bowl trip. Except, 100-odd hopefuls attended and discovered that it was a sting operation. “It was hilarious,” Shyamalan chuckles. “The cops were literally cheerleaders and mascots. These guys were dancing as they came in. And they were all caught. It was so twisted and funny.”

Combine that with [his daughter] Saleka’s rising pop career, and Shyamalan envisaged a “very scary and Hitchcockian” ride – one that adds a new string to the filmmaker’s bow. “I directed an entire concert!” he says. “And it wasn’t just a thing in the background. It’s equally important. There is no pretend concert going on. I love the idea of cinema as windows within windows. One of the reasons to come see the movie at the movie theatre is because there’s literally a real concert that you can see nowhere except in that movie.”

For Shyamalan, Trap represents another example of making unique, unexpected and original films – continuing to self-fund his own work, allowing him take all kinds of narrative risks in the process. “I really do believe in the original movie,” he says. “I want the industry to move towards more original storytelling. I think audiences would really like it. Look, I know there’s safety in IP. But it’s really important that we come to the movies and see something we’ve never seen before. I’ll keep fighting for that.”

[From Empire]

The word “auteur” gets thrown around so much, but it’s rarely applied to Night. He IS an auteur though, and he deserves so much credit for what he’s doing. He’s turning original concepts into original stories and creating unique summer blockbusters. “I know there’s safety in IP” – are the studios doing too much with IPs out of safety, or because they simply don’t value originality at this point? It’s hard to even describe how thoroughly foreign it is to studios to put money behind original stories and a director with a great track record.

A new trailer for Trap was released this week. It looks good!

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.