The Quad

Issue date: 9/17/07 Section: Entertainment

What seemed to be an average, quiet, hot and humid August night in Phoenixville, Pa. was anything but average. That's because hundreds of area citizens waited outside the G Lodge Restaurant in hopes of catching a glance of Mark Walhberg, star of M. Night Shyamalan's newest thriller, "The Happening."

Several filming locations are taking place in the Philadelphia area including Rittenhouse Square, 30th Street Station, Julia R. Masterman School and the G Lodge restaurant in Phoenixville.

The last time this level of excitement was seen in the sleepy town of Phoenixville was when Steve McQueen and company invaded to film the campy 50s horror film classic, "The Blob." In fact, that event was so remarkable that the town has an annual "Blobfest" just to commemorate the film and its significance to the area.

"The Happening" is a thriller about a teacher and struggling musician named Elliot Moore, played by Walhberg, and his family on the run from a natural disaster that presents a large scale threat to humanity.

Aliens take control of the Earth's animals and plants in order to take over the planet. It appears to be the usual Shyamalan offering of adventure/thriller with a slightly twisted perspective.

In January 2007, Shyamalan traveled from Philadelphia to Hollywood to prepare a live-action film adaptation of "Avatar: The Last Airbender" an Emmy Award-nominated American animated television series that currently airs on Nickelodeon.

Shyamalan then went to numerous studios submitting a sample script of a movie entitled "The Green Effect," but no studios showed enough interest in purchasing the script.

Attempting to salvage the project, Shyamalan returned to Philadelphia with ideas and notes he collected from the various meetings.

In March 2007, Twentieth Century Fox greenlit Shyamlan's project, now entitled "The Happening."

Shymalan and Barry Mendel are producing the $57 million film, which will be the director's first R-rated project.

Besides the film's star, Walhberg, the cast consists of Betty Buckley, Spencer Breslin (who was in Disney's "The Kid," "The Santa Clause 2" and "The Cat in the Hat") and Zooey Deschanel, from "Almost Famous" and "Elf."

An area native, Shyamalan clearly favors shooting his films in and around Philadelphia. "The Sixth Sense," his break-out hit, featured Philadelphia so prominently that it almost became a character in and of itself, lending it's unique architecture and ambience to the story of a boy who could "see dead people."

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