THE HAPPENING

The Happening is an R rated 2008 American apocalyptic film written, co-produced and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. It stars Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel. Production began in August 2007 in Philadelphia. The Happening will be released on Friday, June 13, 2008, deliberately planned to fall on Friday the 13th.

The movie is a thriller that shows the results of the horrific release of a neurotoxin by plants. When this toxin is inhaled, the victim will attempt suicide by very violent means. The protagonist, a science teacher named Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg), runs for his life together with his estranged wife, Alma Moore (Zooey Deschanel), in order to survive while the world goes into a violent whirlwind of self destruction.

Shyamalan submitted a spec script entitled The Green Effect to various studios, but none expressed enough interest to purchase the script. The director collected ideas and notes from meetings, returning home to Philadelphia to rewrite the script, and 20th Century Fox greenlit the project.

Now titled The Happening, the film will be produced by Shyamalan and Barry Mendel and will be the director's first R-rated project. Shyamalan compared the film to the earlier paranoia films The Birds (1963) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956).

Later in March, actor Mark Wahlberg, with whom Shyamalan had been negotiating at the same time as his deal with Fox, was cast into the lead role of the $57 million project. Shyamalan had previously cast Wahlberg's brother Donnie Wahlberg in The Sixth Sense. The India-based company UTV will co-finance 50% of the film's budget and distribute the film in India, with Fox distributing in the rest of the territories. Production began in August in Philadelphia. The release date for The Happening is set for June 13, 2008, intentionally set for Friday the 13th to suit the thriller.