Directing scary stories is one part of storytelling: Shyamalan

M Night Shyamalan is hoping that `After Earth` will reveal another dimension to his storytelling style.

New Delhi: Indo-American director M Night Shyamalan, who has been behind supernatural thrillers like `The Sixth Sense` and `The Lady in the Water`, is hoping that the upcoming sci-fi Hollywood film `After Earth` will reveal another dimension to his storytelling style.

Shyamalan does not believe that he has been pigeonholed as the horror director but he plans to shake off this perception with his future projects. "It is both good and bad and it comes with conflicts and benefits. I do like to do scary movies but that`s not the whole thing. That`s one type of storytelling I like to do. "As I traverse other genres and other stories, I hope that as time goes by, I will be able to broaden the definition about what to expect from my name," Shyamalan told PTI in an interview over phone from London. Film`s lead actor Will Smith has teamed up with his son Jaden for the second time after their successful last outing together `The Persuit of Happyness` and Shyamalan found it exciting to explore the dynamics between a father and his son. The Sony Pictures film releases in India on June 7. "I want everyone to evoke that movie when they come to see `After Earth` as it is like the second part. It centres on the dynamics between a father and son. It is about a pre-teen boy and he is becoming a young man," Shyamalan said. The film revolves around teenager Kitai Raige (Jaden) and his legendary father Cypher (Will) who crash land on Earth, 1000 years after cataclysmic events forced humanity to abandon the only home they knew. With Cypher critically injured, Kitai embarks on a journey to signal for help in a hostile terrain where everything has evolved to kill humans. Shyamalan took advantage of the real chemistry between the superstar and his son to tell this coming-of-age story, set in future. "We turned them into a kind of military family because that`s what they play in the movie so their dynamics was fun one and I definitely took advantage of that relationship to bring out some tension and conflict. "You look for those things to mine with actors. Will and Jaden were having a similar experience in real life to what was going on in the film in the sense that the father is casting the torch towards the son and the son is coming-of-age," said the director. The film was born out of an idea that Smith had and the screenplay was eventually developed by Gary Whitta. Shyamalan worked on the screenplay after coming aboard the film in 2010. "I did write the screenplay. Will had an idea and we eventually developed it. It had enough detail to grab me and I became a part of the parenting of the story. "Through rewriting the screenplay, I had the opportunity to really customize it and bring the kind of emotions that were important to me. I had enough opportunity to make it my own and have come away feeling an ownership over the story," said the director, who last helmed `The Last Airbender`. Since the film is set in future, Shaymalan enjoyed indulging his fantasies while recreating the Earth 1000 years later. "One of the favourite parts for me was the year that I spent designing the movie with my production designer at my house. "It was a fun and rewarding experience. We really got to play with our imagination during that time period. We thought about how the civilization would be like if we redid the whole thing. I am happy that everything looks very organic in the movie." Shyamalan will next be executive producing and directing Fox`s TV series `Wayward Pines`. PTI