M Night Shyamalan is not a happy man. And his main bugbear is Steven Soderbergh’s ideas to shake-up the way films are distributed. Soderbergh is aiming to introduce a system that will see movies released on DVD, online and on TV at the same time as they’re launched in cinemas.
Shyamalan hates the idea, and has been vocal about his opinions. “I'm going to stop making movies if they end the cinema experience. If there's a last film that's released only theatrically, it'll have my name on it. This is life or death to me. If you tell audiences there's no difference between a theatrical experience and a DVD, then that's it, game's over.”
And he’s also thinking about the earnings. "I'm out to prove that not only is it the morally right thing to do, but it's the financially right thing to do," he said. "Even if you didn't go see a film, and I went and told you about it, you now benefit from my group experience. Films have to exist in the world in their ideal form before you can exploit them. So if chewing gum with a movie's logo makes more money than the movie, don't get seduced by the chewing gum."
But he harbours to ill will towards Soderbergh, admitting, “We both love cinema. I don't know if he thinks I'm naive about my position. I just feel this idea of releasing everything at the same time is gonna kill us."