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Also: Rick James' 'Super Freak' brightens 'Little Miss Sunshine'

      *So if we’re all just a group of people who don’t believe in ourselves, don’t believe in our purpose, we can’t build off each other.  -- M. Night Shyamalan --

      Griots are a very important part of the African tradition. M. Night Shyamalan's latest, "Lady in the Water," takes on the mantle of storyteller.

      The Film Strip asked Shyamalan how important storytelling was to him as a kid and if he read stories to his children. He said storytelling was very important and he did read stories to his children, but not as much as he should.

      "It was our last day in France," he recalled, "and we were having dinner. One of my kids was like, 'Tell me a story.' And I'm like, 'No, we’re just going to sit here and smell the lavender. That's what we’re going to do.' And they’re like rolling their eyes."

      Although Shyamalan has had much success with "Sixth Sense" with Bruce Willis and "Signs" with Mel Gibson and Joaquin Pheonix, he says his most requested film is "Unbreakable" with Samuel L. Jackson. 

      "The struggle for me is that there are two realities," Shyamalan points out. "There is a perceived reality. Let's say that that's a big successful movie, and then there's the reality of it. Let's just pick 'Unbreakable.' There is a perceived reality of what happened to it and then there is the reality which is that I cannot go anywhere without someone asking me about the sequel to 'Unbreakable.' I can't walk out and go get a bagel. I can't go anywhere. That is the most asked about movie of my career by far and it's everywhere I go. I'm out swimming in the middle of the ocean and a couple swims up and ask me if I'm going to make the sequel to 'Unbreakable.' 'We love that movie,' they say."

      As in the past, Shyamalan continues to sing the praises of Spike Lee.  This time he begins telling the story of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Abe Lincoln:

      "The idea of Harriet Beecher Stowe was what really caught me, just caught me, and I said, 'Wow, this idea that you write a book and somebody like Lincoln reads the book and other people in that time period read that book and you’re creating change. Then someone who can make a difference decides to do something about it. Harriet Beecher Stowe didn’t know she was doing all that, she was just writing a book, but it actually opened minds and created points of views … You will be part of a chain that you can’t possibly know. It's very important that you keep acting, that you be proactive. That you believe you have a purpose. If any one of us doesn’t do our little link in the chain, the eventuality doesn’t happen. So if we’re all just a group of people who don’t believe in ourselves, don’t believe in our purpose, we can’t build off each other.

      "I've told this story, but I'll tell it again. I'm in JFK airport sending my grandparents to India and the flight was delayed, I went into a little bookstore and on the rack was Spike Lee's book for his first movie, 'She's Gotta Have It'. I got the book and I could not believe that you could just go and make movies. I thought it was some tribe of people that did that way out where you have no connections. So I decided to go make movies. I went to school where he [Spike] went to school, all of that, blah, blah, blah. I went on to make some movies, make some money. I put the money into a foundation.

      "There is a lady in a village in India who really inspired me. She stood up to these gang people that were raping and pillaging and all this kind of stuff. I want to help those unfortunate people, help educate them and save lives. Spike Lee saves lives. Literally, Spike Lee saves lives. Is he aware that he saves lives? No, maybe now if I tell him, you know what I mean. But he is a link in the chain. A link in the chain. That is very important. Literally, somebody's gonna get money in their hands because he [Spike] wrote that book and saves lives. They're going to get educated, learn how to sow and be able to support their family. How do we know what part we're going in the chain? Positive, empowering energy will create an incredible network of things.

      How many people don’t believe in that, that they’re part of that inevitable change of things.

      "My babysitter once left a book by mistake that she was reading about how people are having a hard time making ends meet because their cost of living is so high, and they’re not saving anything, because they’re always renting. It’s called the “Nickel and Dime” book. So I went and I bought a bunch of low income houses and built them up and gave them to families in Philadelphia, because my babysitter was reading it, because her teacher had assigned it to her, because the teacher was moved by this lady. Look at that chain of events, you know what I mean? It’s just an empowering thing to be able to hear, if you could, the beauty of the spiral of things that happen. If God could tell you when you die, this is what you did, It would be so cool."

      *"Monster House" gives new meaning to the saying, "If these walls could talk."  Happy to talk about this uniquely conceived animated film were its stars Mitchel Musso, Sam Lerner, Spencer Locke and director Gil Kenan. Unfortunately Nick Cannon, who plays the overzealous rookie cop Lister, was not available for interviews, so The Film Strip asked the trio how was it working with Cannon?

"He's awesome," Locke enthused. "Yeah, he's so cool," Musso and Lerner chimed in.

       No stranger to comedy, Cannon's first big break came when he appeared at the Comedy Store. So it was not surprising that Cannon kept the kids in stitches.

"We couldn’t keep a straight face," Musso added. "He came out with the funniest lines. The director would give him one line and he would say the line and something else and we would just start cracking up. Him and his partner were brilliant. We just couldn't stop laughing." They were brilliant at improv, they were brilliant. We just couldn’t stop laughing."

      Producers Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis no doubt picked Kenan for the job because of his affinity for houses. "I just feel like I'm just really aware of the idea of a place in terms of what it means to people that live there," he explained. The idea of the houses I’ve lived in come with me wherever I’ve gone. When I have a nightmare nowadays or a dream, it usually takes place in my childhood home. I feel like these places I've lived at are a part of who I am and will continue to be. So I don't know if I'm hyper sensitive to it but I'm aware of that environmental relationship in terms of a house."

      *Another unusual relationship is that of Luke Wilson and his "Super Ex-Girlfriend," Uma Thurman. Seemingly the whole country is comic book crazy and Hollywood has made stars of many performers playing superheroes. Thurman suits up as "My Super Ex-Girlfriend" and Wilson's prowess places him in a unique position.

      When The Film Strip asked Thurman and Wilson, if it was one of their childhood dreams to be a superhero, Thurman's answer was a hands down, "Yes!"

"I think that every high school kid does. I sure did in high school." "Growing up, I just watched cartoons. I was more of a kind of an Alfred E. Newman guy. I was never really into superheroes."

      *A dysfunctional family on a road trip is the premise for "Little Miss Sunshine" starring Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Paul Dano Abigail Breslin and Alan Arkin.

      Paul Dano, who has an unusual role told The Film Strip he could relate to his character because he knows people like that. Alan Arkin got a kick out of playing Grandpa.

"I loved every minute of it," he chuckled. "The only problem I had is I didn't want Abigail to be subjected to the language I used. So when we were in the van, I just insisted that she had her earphones on and she was listening to something else,  which was in a way ridiculous because she had read the script and she's seen the movie a half dozen times."

      The finale had a scene that paid tribute to Rick James and I asked the directors Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris if James had an opportunity to see the film before he died.

"Unfortunately, no," says Dayton. "Ironically, there was another song used for the dance sequence and it just wasn't working. It was ZZ Top's 'Give Me All Your Lovin'." The music director suggested 'Super Freak' and it slipped right into place."