M. Night Shyamalan Says Studio Was ‘Too Scared’ to Market ‘Unbreakable’ as a Comic Book Film in 2000 Because ‘No One Will Go See a Movie About a Comic Book’

variety.com:

Zack Sharf Digital News Director M. Night Shyamalan participated in a career retrospective interview with GQ magazine to mark the release of his latest directorial effort, “Trap,” and remembered studio executives not wanting to market 2000’s “Unbreakable” as a comic book movie.

How the times have changed. Shyamalan and star Bruce Willis were coming off the enormous success of “The Sixth Sense,” which earned $672 million worldwide and picked up six Oscar nominations, including best picture.

Shyamalan remembered the studio wanting to market “Unbreakable” like a horror-thriller even though it was a superhero movie. “If you deny what it is because you’re afraid of it being different, then you’re stealing all of its strength,” Shyamalan said. “They were like, ‘We had one of the biggest movies of all time and the same two people are making another movie.

Let’s make it look like that movie.’ As opposed to what it was, which was the beginning of an entire genre. They didn’t realize it because they were too scared to say the words ‘comic book.'” “That was literally the thing that was like, no one will go see a movie about a comic book,” he remembered the studio saying. “That was literally like, you can’t do it.