"I couldn’t believe it when Night called and said he was already working on another script and that he was writing it specifically for me," says Willis. "We had just finished shooting ‘The Sixth Sense,’ the movie had not even been released in theatres yet, and he already had a new idea and wanted me to star. I was so impressed by his confidence in me and, having just worked with him, I knew what he was capable of, so I trusted him implicitly."
Samuel L. Jackson also had the same kind of instinctual trust about Shyamalan and the script. "I had read ‘The Sixth Sense’ a few years ago and thought it was an awesome script," says Jackson. "So not only did I trust his writing, but I had also spoken to Bruce about his experience working with him and trusted his opinion about what he had done. So I said, just let me know when it’s ready and I’ll be there."
With Willis and Jackson on board, Shyamalan continued to finalize the script for the next few months, during which time "The Sixth Sense" was released in theatres with overwhelming box office and critical success (ultimately grossing more than $500 million worldwide). Shyamalan grew more and more excited about making "Unbreakable" and quickly made his last revisions to his sixth draft in order to deliver the final sale version.
"My initial reaction was ‘Wow! He’s done it again!,’" says producer Sam Mercer. "What impressed me the most was the level of detail and layering, which I thought far exceeded ‘The Sixth Sense’. It is clever, inventive, emotionally grinding and incredibly riveting with even stronger and richer characters. As a piece of writing from a young writer/director, it really is two more giant steps further along."
"This film really is a total progression for me," says Shyamalan. "I implemented a whole different theory of filmmaking on ‘The Sixth Sense’ that was just beginning, and this is kind of the evolution of that – like that was the bachelor’s degree and this is the master’s. Hopefully it will be sort of a signature in that you can tell it is by the same filmmakers – very suspenseful with a lot of twists and turns and emotion – but with a whole new story and excitement."
"I thought the ambition of it was greater than ‘The Sixth Sense’ because that film had relied more on ghost stories which was more recognizable, whereas this is a more original idea," explains producer Barry Mendel. "It’s a more ambitious screenplay that shows a greater maturity of storytelling in terms of going out on its own and trying something new. Most movies have something good about them … great action, great suspense, a great twist … but very few scripts pull it all together. ‘Unbreakable’ is a great story by a great screenwriter and it brings it all together in a way that doesn’t happen very often. You can count on one hand the number of times it happens every year and I think this will be one of them."
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