M. Night Shyamalan Once Almost Directed A Blink-182 Video

Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus has been in the news lately for battling cancer. His former bandmate Tom DeLonge is seemingly always in the news due to his second career as a UFO expert, but we somehow haven’t posted about him since 10 months ago, when we learned he was directing a sci-fi movie. Speaking of sci-fi movies, M. Night Shyamalan has been in the news lately for releasing a movie about a beach that makes you old. The following story relates to all three of these people.

Hoppus is continuing to host his Apple Music Hits radio show After School Radio, and his latest guest is DeLonge. On the episode, they discussed such topics as the dynamic of their friendship, DeLonge’s favorite Blink-182 album and music video, and whether he feels vindicated about the government’s recent revelations about UFOs. (“I feel cautious about how the people are going to digest all the subject matter and really start to understand things,” DeLonge says. “It’s going to be hard.”)

They also discussed the time Shyamalan almost directed a Blink video. Here’s how that conversation, which also involved DeLonge asking Chris Hemsworth if they could kiss, went down:

MARK HOPPUS: Ee were on tour in Japan and we were having lunch in the hotel in Japan, and we look over and M. Night Shyamalan is at a table next to us …

TOM DELONGE: Shama lama ding dong.

HOPPUS: … and you’re like, “I’m going to go ask him to direct a Blink-182 video.” And I was like, “What the hell?” 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 a big fan of yours. Would you ever direct a Blink video?” And 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.”

DELONGE: That’s funny. Remember I did that to Chris Hemsworth too, Thor.

HOPPUS: Yeah, he did. He did it to Thor himself.

DELONGE: It’s Thor. I was like, all I did is I walked up to him though, 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. But I was like, well, it was the only question I had is, “Why are you so handsome?” And again, it’s the only thing I asked these actors. But that’s funny, Shyamalan, yeah. He, I remember — that is really funny you bringing that up. 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.”

It’s not that surprising that Hoppus would bring up the Shyamalan incident because just a month ago DeLonge tweeted the above picture of the three of them together. Anyway, here’s audio of this exchange:

Blink’s Take Off Your Pants And Jacket just turned 20 years old. Just think how old it would be if someone brought it to that beach!