Wait, So, Did M. Night Shyamalan Write She’s All That Or Not?!

Wait, So, Did M. Night Shyamalan Write She’s All That Or Not?!

Last week, I’m sure you remember, we got word that M. Night Shyamalan had secretly written She’s All That this whole time. Ahhhhh, of course. We were wearing red every time we thought about M. Night Shyamalan while watching a rerun of She’s All That on cable, how did we not see it?! But, wait, now it looks like he DIDN’T write She’s All That? What? From Entertainment Weekly:

Except, wait! As The Daily Dot pointed out Thursday, She’s All That‘s credited screenwriter, R. Lee Fleming Jr., has claimed that Shyamalan was lying about his work on the film. Last week, when Twitter user James Mitchell wrote “OMG, at the end of his career, it turns out he was a ghost writer all along #spoileralert” — referring to Shyamalan — Fleming responded with this (since-deleted) tweet:

“Only in his mind, James.”

More recently, Fleming also tweeted (and deleted) a telling quote attributed to (but, ironically,probably not actually written by) Mark Twain: “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”

“Only in his mind, James.” Hahahah. M. Night Shyamalan, drifting to sleep, thinking about the possibility of having written She’s All That. On the one hand I love that at this point in 2067 or whatever year it is we’re all involved in a conflict about the true author of She’s All That, on the other hand, WHY IS M. NIGHT WASTING OUR TIME ABOUT THE AUTHOR OF SHE’S ALL THAT IF IT IS INDEED NOT HIM?! Surely someone must have the answer. Entertainment Weekly, do you? If we keep reading?

So who’s right? Both writers, according to movie producer and NYU adjunct professor Jack Lechner, who served as Miramax’s head of development in the late ’90s. As Lechner explained in a comment left at The Mary Sue on Monday, “R. Lee Fleming wrote the script we bought, which is recognizably the same movie you saw (if you saw SHE’S ALL THAT). M. Night Shyamalan did an uncredited rewrite on the script, and a very good one that got the movie green-lit.”

Wait, so, not both writers are right? Only the one writer is. The one who wrote She’s All That, recognizably the same movie we saw (if we saw SHE’S ALL THAT). M. Night Shyamalan does not get to say that he wrote it, EVEN IF it gives us all something with which to fill the blog void, for which we are forever desperate. HOW DARE YOU, M. NIGHT. It is still a good fact to keep conversation going a blind date, though. “Hey, did you know M. Night Shyamalan did an uncredited rewrite on She’s All That, and actually got the film green-lit?” “I didn’t! Wow. Should we get one more round and talk about it?” 

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