LADY IN THE WATER |

Synopsis:
Cleveland Heep (PAUL GIAMATTI) has been quietly trying to disappear among the burned-out lightbulbs and broken appliances of the Cove apartment complex. But on the night that irrevocably changes his life, Cleveland finds someone else hiding in the mundane routine of the modest building – a mysterious young woman named Story (BRYCE DALLAS HOWARD), who has been living in the passageways beneath the building’s swimming pool. Cleveland discovers that Story is actually a “Narf” – a nymph-like character from an epic bedtime story who is being stalked by vicious creatures determined to prevent her from making the treacherous journey from our world back to hers. Story’s unique powers of perception reveal the fates of Cleveland’s fellow tenants, whose destinies are tied directly to her own, and they must work together to decipher a series of codes that will unlock the pathway to her freedom. But the window of opportunity for Story to return home is closing rapidly, and the tenants are putting their own lives at great risk to help her. Cleveland will have to face the demons that have followed him to the Cove – and the other tenants must seize the special powers that Story has brought out in them – if they hope to succeed in their daring and dangerous quest to save her world…and ours.

Synopsis 2

In Lady in the Water, a story originally conceived by writer-director M. Night Shyamalan for his children, a modest building manager named Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) rescues a mysterious young woman (Bryce Dallas Howard) from danger and discovers she is actually a narf, a character from a bedtime story who is trying to make the treacherous journey from our world back to hers. Cleveland and his fellow tenants start to realize that they are also characters in this bedtime story. As Cleveland falls deeper and deeper in love with the woman, he works together with the tenants to protect his new fragile friend from the deadly creatures that reside in this fable and are determined to prevent her from returning home.

Crew: M. Night Shyamalan (director, writer & producer); Sam Mercer (producer); Jose L. Rodriguez (associate producer)

Cast: Paul Giamatti as Cleveland Heep, Bryce Dallas Howard as The Lady, Andrew Aninsman as Party goer, Jarett Armstrong as Party Guest, Patrick Armstrong as Party Guest, Bob Balaban, J. Bloomrosen as The Divorced Man, John Boyd as One eyebrow smoker, Shaun Brewington as Stand In, Rich Bryant as Rain Guy, M.P. Cherkowsky as Party Guest, Cindy Cheung, Sarita Choudhury, Ethan Cohn as Glasses smoker, Brandon Cook, Monique Curnen as Perez de la Torre Daughter #4, Tim Fash as Party goer, Jim Gaffigan as Pool guy, Cary Gottlieb as Apartment tenant, Jessica Graham as Stacy (voice), Noah Gray-Cabey as Joey Dury, Karen Guidas as Party Goer, Jared Harris, Maricruz Hernandez as Perez De la Torre Daughter, Jeremy Howard, Mary Beth Hurt, Bill Irwin, Carla Jimenez as Perez de la Torre Daughter, Doug Jones, Shannon Lambert-Ryan as Rain Girl, Jason Mckee as Sick Partygoer, Grant Monohon as Phat smoker, Keith Moyer as Long Haired Party Guest, Natasha Perez as Perez de La Torre Daughter, Chris Philip as Partygoer, Mark Pricskett as College Student Tenant, Michael Redding as Silvertide Band Fan/Party Guest, Joseph D. Reitman, Freddy Rodríguez, Keith Salay as Black Jacket Party Guest, Todd Shaeffer as Storyteller, M. Night Shyamalan, Eugene Smith as Party Goer, Brian Steele, Kevin Streckewald as Party Guest, Jeffrey Wright and Mathew J. Wright as Party Guest

Studio: Warner Bros.

Other Info:

Film Fetish trivia:
Lady in the Water was originally to be produced by Disney, but M. Night Shyamalan departed over creative differences, and brought the project to Warner Brothers. Disney had produced Shyamalan’s previous four films.

Shamalan has always committed to using films sites in Pennsylvania, and some of Lady in the Water was shot in Levittown, PA at a warehouse site. The set, built on the warehouse site, includes an apartment complex and a half city block of row houses.

The plot of the movie is based on a bedtime story M. Night Shyamalan wrote for his kids.