Lady dead in the water ...

Most of you have already heard about M. Night Shyamalan's new film Lady in the Water. You've seen the trailers online or in the theater and the TV spots during commerical breaks. Or ... maybe you haven't, I'm assuming here. If you haven't ... here's the IMDb page.

In any case, Shyamalan began marketing his film as a modern day fairy tale -- a bedtime story, he called it. It was very intriguing, to say the least. I don't think I was the only one intrigued, either. The premise is interesting; combined with Shyamalans distinct directing style, this film could be great.

However ... the geniuses over at Fox are shooting themselves in the foot with a double-barreled shotgun with the marketing of this film. They made the mistake with Shyamalan's The Village two years ago of marketing it as a horror/thriller. Apparently, they haven't learned yet. They're doing the same exact thing now with recent trailers and TV spots for Lady in the Water.

It's ridiculous. People can cope with the fact that Shyamalan isn't directing another thriller better than they can cope with finding out that the scary movie they paid money for turned out to be a fairy tale.

I hope the inept marketing doesn't affect people's experience with the film as much as it did with The Village. Shyamalan is a great young directing talent, and I would hate for him to be a passing fad.