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Philadelphia film legends team up for 'After Earth'

Will Smith and M. Night Shyamalan connect over the sci-fi romp and bring Smith's son Jaden along for the ride.

Will Smith with son Jaden Smith in the sci-fi yarn “After Earth.” (Columbia Pictures)
Will Smith with son Jaden Smith in the sci-fi yarn “After Earth.” (Columbia Pictures)Read more

EVERY SCHMOOZER in Hollywood says to every other schmoozer that they should work together someday, and almost nobody means it.

But a long-term, respectful industry friendship between Philadelphia natives M. Night Shyamalan and Will Smith did amount to something - their new sci-fi spectacle "After Earth," also starring Smith's son Jaden.

"We just kind of knew each other lightly over the years. Will's been gracious, keeping in touch. We've met over the last four or five years in LA, we'll get a meal and talk about stuff, and he's always been super receptive to those kinds of meetings," said Shyamalan.

"We'll just talk in general about movies, what we've done, what we've learned, what was tough, what was successful. We always felt a bond, and we always felt we'd do something together, if we got a chance, but never anything specific."

One day, Shyamalan got a birthday call from Smith, and the two started talking about Jaden.

"I had just seen 'The Karate Kid' two weeks before, and told Will what a wonderful job Jaden had done, showing emotion and charm, all the colors you'd want to see from anybody. So Will says, 'What do you think of this idea?' " said the director, who listened to Smith's pitch for "After Earth," a father-son adventure set on a wild, hostile and uninhabited (by humans) Earth 1,000 years hence.

"And after two minutes of talking about the movie, that was all I needed. I really connected with it. Plus, it came pre-cast with Will Smith and Jaden Smith."

The elder plays an injured soldier in a crash-landed ship who guides his son through a series of perilous adventures - Shyamalan, father of three, said he related to the anxiety associated with sending children out into the world.

And he loved taking the genial Smith and turning him into a scowling dad.

"The first draft was really dark. What was that Robert Duvall movie? 'The Great Santini,' " Shyamalan said.

"I tend to get interested in doing things that are unusual - putting action stars in roles that don't require action, taking two genres that don't belong together, and combining them. Or I'll use the baggage of an actor to create a sense of the unexpected," he said. "It's not long into the movie that we really shatter [Will] so he's very still and dramatic, and Jaden becomes his physicality."

It's been a time of change, too, for Shyamalan, now working in television - he's producing and directing the David Lynch-like "Wayward Pines" for Fox. Shooting starts in August.

But Shyamalan said he's not going to television as much as television - thanks to shows like "Breaking Bad" - has come to him.

"The medium has taken up this new mantle, where in the really important shows, character and tone supercede plot. And that's just music to my ears. That's my inclination in cinema," he said .

"I'm always up for doing something in that vein, and when this opportunity came up, I said, 'This is a very cool platform.' Too cool to pass up."