Former directing phenom M. Night Shyamalan is back baby, and I’m not talking about that crappy Nickolodeon movie he’s supposed to be making. M. Night has finally gotten someone to buy the spec script he’s been shopping around. You know, the one that’s been met with doors being slammed in his face.

The title has changed. Before it was going by The Green Effect it’s now called The Happening, and Variety says after suffering a lot of rejection Night has gotten 20th Century Fox to sign on for it. The deal comes after a rather publicly humiliating process for Night who’s coming off a pair of stinkers in The Village and Lady in the Water. The experience seemed to humble him though, and a couple of months ago when his Happening script had been rejected yet again he declared himself ready to go off and implement a few of the suggestions he’d been given to get himself back on track.

Well now he’s back on track, and ready to get to work on his own projects again. In a way, I’m a little disappointed. I still say what he really needs is to take a break from writing his own movies and direct something written by someone else. But that’s not happening, so let’s see what he’s got.

The Happening sounds like The Day After Tomorrow with the formula used in Signs applied to it. It’s described as a paranoid thriller about a family on the run from a natural crisis, of the sort that could wipe out all of humanity, not the kind that might mess up your rain gutters. It’s going to be a $57 million dollar pic, and M. Night’s first ever R-rated movie. Shyamalan says he’s looking for a big name, male star to play the lead role.

Where does that leave his Nickolodeon movie, Avatar: The Last Airbender? Well, Shyamalan is already contracted to make it. But now, it looks like he’s in considerably less hurry to get around to it. The Happening is taking first priority, and assuming he can’t find a way to get out of it, Airbender comes afterward.