M. Night Shyamalan has just released his wild horror Old, a film about a beach that makes you age rapidly. But, is the movie actually just a really long music video for Blink-182’s 1999 hit “What’s My Age Again?”
Well, no, but the band’s Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge have just revealed that Shyamalan did almost direct one of their videos, meaning the theory isn’t too out-of-this-world.
Speaking on Hoppus’ radio show, After School Radio, the pair recalled the time they met the filmmaker while on tour in Japan. “We were having lunch in the hotel in Japan,” said Hoppus, “and we look over and M. Night Shyamalan is at a table next to us… and you’re like, ‘I’m going to go ask him to direct a Blink-182 video’. I was like, ‘What the hell?’”
He continued: “The dude’s having lunch on a promo tour of his movie in Japan and you just walk up and you’re like, ‘Hey, my name’s Tom DeLonge. I play in a band called Blink-182. We’re big fans of yours. Would you ever direct a Blink video?’ Within half an hour, we’re all sitting together and he’s coming up with ideas for a Blink video. And I mean, he did come up with a whole treatment and everything. It was going to cost, whatever it was, $20 million, but I mean, just on your gumption or I don’t know, no fucks to give, just walk up to somebody and say, ‘Hey, I want you to direct a Blink video’.”
“That’s funny,” DeLonge replied. “I remember doing that, and I thought that would have been… he wanted to, you’re right. I think when he found out what music video budgets really were, he was like, ‘This is so beneath me’. No, he didn’t say that, but of course, he was like, ‘I’m not going to do this, this is a nightmare’.”
DeLonge added that he “did that to Chris Hemsworth too, Thor”, explaining: “I walked up to him – the pitch was a little bit different – I said, ‘Can I kiss you on the lips?’ That was all I said, and that was the ice breaker.”
Last month, DeLonge shared a photo of himself with Hoppus and Shyamalan on Twitter, with the caption: “Hey @markhoppus, remember when we had @travisbarker replace M. Knight on drums? He was a great drummer, just scared us a lot.”
Listen to the full episode via Apple Music here, and read Dazed’s interview with Old’s stars Vicky Krieps and Alex Wolff here.