"Speaking from his Philadelphia-area office shortly before leaving for Orlando, the director said: "I'm going to stop making movies if they end the cinema experience. If there's a last film that's released only theatrically, it'll have my name on it. This is life or death to me.
"If you tell audiences there's no difference between a theatrical experience and a DVD, then that's it, game's over, and that whole art form is going to go away slowly," Shyamalan added. "Movies will end up being this esoteric art form, where only singular people will put films out in a small group of theaters.""
"Shyamalan said, "Story is king. Storytelling is an ancient art form that has always been told to a group, and the reason is that we need to see the story through each others' point of view, like sitting next to someone whose sense of humor is different than yours. That's the way we grow. We can't disregard the effect we have on each other when we see a movie. I make them for a room full of 500 strangers, not a singular individual who only has a life experience like mine. That would be asinine."
Second, he proposed an economic motivation. "I'm out to prove that not only is it the morally right thing to do, but it's the financially right thing to do," he said. "Even if you didn't go see a film, and I went and told you about it, you now benefit from my group experience. Films have to exist in the world in their ideal form before you can exploit them ... (so) if chewing gum with a movie's logo makes more money than the movie, don't get seduced by the chewing gum.""
"His stance has pitted him against Steven Soderbergh, who has committed to making six films for 2929 Entertainment for simultaneous release on various platforms. The directors spoke privately at the DGA dinner, and, Shyamalan said, "We both love cinema. I love that guy; he was very gracious during our conversation, and it was very eye-opening to have it. I don't know if he thinks I'm naive about my position. I just feel this idea of releasing everything at the same time is gonna kill us." "
After explaining his theory of the "collective soul" that can be found among a movie audience, he said, "The ideal form is the movie theatrical experience. If they try to convince us otherwise, they are lying." Acknowledging that he had benefited from DVDs, he added, " 'The Sixth Sense' DVD bought my house. You know what? Take my house," a remark that drew a big cheer from the crowd.
"I don't believe this is inevitable," he said to the exhibitors of the threat of shrinking windows, but, he warned, "If this goes through, you know theaters are closing down. It's going to crush you guys."
At the end of his speech, the audience rose and gave Shyamalan a standing ovation.
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