through, Shyamalan later said it was too "tricky" to arrange and "not the right thing" for him to do. Shyamalan followed The Sixth Sense by writing and directing Unbreakable (2000), again starring Willis, a stealth superhero film within a thriller which was both critically and financially successful. Shyamalan's name was linked with the 2001 film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, but it conflicted with the production of Unbreakable. In July 2006, while doing press tours for Lady in the Water, Shyamalan had said he was still interested in directing one of the last two Harry Potter films: "The themes that run through it ... the empowering of children, a positive outlook ... you name it, it falls in line with my beliefs", Shyamalan said. "I enjoy the humor in it. When I read the first Harry Potter and was thinking about making it, I had a whole different vibe in my head of it". His next film, Signs, where he also played Ray Reddy, was released in 2002. The film stars Mel Gibson as a former Episcopalian priest who regains his faith in God during an alien invasion. It was both critically and financially successful and grossed $408 million from a budget of $72 million. Shyamalan next directed The Village (2004), about an isolated community living in the woods. Although it received mixed reviews, it was financially successful as it grossed $257 million from a budget of $60 million. After the release of The Village in 2004, Shyamalan had been planning a film adaptation of Yann Martel's novel Life of Pi with 20th Century Fox, but later backed out so that he could make Lady in the Water. In an interview he said about his reasons for dropping out of that project: Released in 2006, Lady in the Water, a bedtime story about a water nymph and an apartment superintendent, was both critically and financially unsuccessful, only grossing $72 million worldwide from a budget of $70 million. Next was the film The Happening, a B-movie about trees killing humans, featuring a teacher Elliott Moore and his wife fleeing from contaminated cities into the countryside. It was critically unsuccessful but financially successful as it grossed $163 million from a budget of $48 million. In 2010, he directed The Last Airbender, based on the first season of the Nickelodeon TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender. It was critically unsuccessful—with significant criticism