Signs
Short description
Signs is a science fiction thriller set on a farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Graham Hess, a former Protestant minister, lives there with his two young children, Morgan and Bo, and his brother Merrill, a onetime baseball player who has moved back to help the family. Graham has stepped away from his congregation since his wife died in an accident. One morning the family discovers huge patterns pressed into the corn around their farmhouse, and similar formations begin turning up elsewhere in the world. Graham and Merrill try to work out what is behind the circles and what it means for them, while the strange events test everything Graham has believed.
M. Night Shyamalan directed and wrote the film, which sits third among the fifteen features he has directed, between Unbreakable and The Village. Mel Gibson plays Graham, with Joaquin Phoenix as Merrill, Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin as the children, and Cherry Jones and Shyamalan himself in supporting roles. Made for about 72 million dollars, it took roughly 408 million dollars worldwide.
On IMDb it holds 6.8 out of 10 from around 413,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.7 out of 10 from about 6,500 votes, while a critics' rating stands at 7.2 out of 10 from 240 reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- Composer James Newton Howard began working on the film's soundtrack long before filming began. He was quite satisfied with the rough drafts provided by Shyamalan.
- Mel Gibson didn't even realize that Shyamalan would play the role of the doctor in the film. He only found out on the day of the corresponding shoot.
- At the director's request, Mel Gibson's face is not on the posters, and there is no mention of the film 'The Sixth Sense'. However, Shyamalan did not refuse to include his own name on the posters.
- The footage of 'amateur video footage from Brazil' was shot by Shyamalan himself on his own video camera.
- Director M. Night Shyamalan has a strong aversion to using computer special effects. This is why the crop circles were real.
- The role of Graham Hess was written for a rather elderly man. However, after Paul Newman and Clint Eastwood turned it down, the decision was made to cast Gibson and make some changes to the plot.
- The drawings by Bo Hess were actually created by the director's daughter, Salek Shyamalan.
- The filming of the scene where Graham speaks to his wife for the last time was scheduled for September 12, 2001. The day before, as we remember, a terrible disaster occurred at the World Trade Center, claiming the lives of over 3,000 people. Filming took place only after the entire film crew lit candles in memory of the victims.
- Johnny Depp was considered for one of the roles.
- The scene with Shyamalan, in which he informs Hess about the death of his wife, was filmed a day after the director lost a relative.
- Joaquin Phoenix joined the project at the last moment. He replaced Mark Ruffalo, who was forced to leave filming due to health reasons. Joaquin later starred in Shyamalan's next project, "The Village".
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