By ever-increasing necessity, director M. Night Shyamalan has decided to steer his cinematic career away from studio-backed opulence and towards a more grounded state of affairs. His next two projects, “Sundowning” and “A Labor of Love” are both independent efforts, taking their stars (Kathryn Hahn and Bruce Willis, respectively) down mysterious path that hopefully get a bit of Shyamalan’s unique approach back. But until then, he’s decided to pay a little Lynchian fan service on TV.
Executive produced by Shyamalan as part of Fox’s new slate of shows, “Wayward Pines” nearly presents itself as a full-on “Twin Peaks” parody, down to the FBI agent (Matt Dillon) investigating a case in a sleepy Pacific Northwestern community, and the eccentric townspeople with whom he’s forced to reckon. A new trailer has arrived (via SlashFilm) to tease the 10-part “event series” as well, but perhaps the most central mystery is what such a solid cast—Carla Gugino, Melissa Leo, Terrence Howard, Toby Jones, and Juliette Lewis—saw in the material to bring them onboard.
Perhaps it was Shyamalan, who directed the premiere episode, or perhaps the source novel material, “Pines” by Blake Crouch, featured some truly intriguing turns along the way. Regardless, check out the full trailer below, and let us know if you think “Wayward Pines” will distinguish itself straight away, or if will just slide over to the underwhelming corners of Shyamalan’s output alongside “After Earth” and “The Last Airbender”.
