M. Night Shyamalan’s Name Isn’t On These International After Earth Character Posters

By Brent McKnight | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

As problematic as both M. Night Shyamalan and Will Smith movies can be at times, their new joint venture, After Earth, looks promising, and is getting a decent amount of positive advanced buzz. We’ll have to wait until June 7, 2013 to find out for ourselves, but a couple of new international character posters have arrived on the scene to tease the release.

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The first is father Will…

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…while number two is his son and costar, Jaden Smith.

After Earth is the story of space-faring father-son team Kitai and Cypher Raige (Jaden and Will). Apparently Cypher is something of a legend, which is going to be hard for any son to live up to (I wonder if Jaden ever has feelings of living in his father’s shadow?). When the boys find themselves stranded on Earth a thousand years after humanity abandoned the planet, the duo becomes embroiled in a life-or-death battle with all manner of creatures who have evolved to hunt humans, a hostile planet, and an alien killing machine they unwittingly released. The father and son must put their fears and differences aside and work for a common goal in order to survive.

I’ve mentioned this fact before, but Shyamalan’s name is conspicuously absent from these posters, as well as most of the marketing for After Earth. Does this mean that his involvement has become a PR liability? Do movie fans see “an M. Night Shyamalan picture” and stay away? After The Last Airbender tanked in every way imaginable, that’s a distinct possibility. Maybe the studio is banking on Will Smith being the biggest movie star in the world to put butts in the seats and not have to worry about turning off some viewers. Then again, it’s a well-known fact that Shyamalan directed the picture, so who knows.

After Earth also stars Zoe Kravitz, Isabelle Fuhrman, and Sophie Okonedo.