Culkin's not so alone with Night!

Arthur J Pais

Manoj Night Shyamalan, who has extracted fine performances from children in his films (The Sixth Sense and Wide Awake), has signed the youngest member of the Culkin clan for his film, Signs.

Walt Disney, producers of the $70 million film, headed by Mel Gibson, confirmed that Rory Culkin will have a key part in Signs. Details about the role are not available. The film also features Joaquin Phoenix.

Eleven-year-old Rory Culkin, who has been acting since 1993, was recently seen as a precocious lad in the critically acclaimed art house hit, You Can Count On Me released last year.

Shyamalan tapped Culkin, the younger brother of Macaulay and Kieran, after an exhaustive search, popular trade publication Variety claims.

Like his previous productions, Shyamalan's casting crew interviewed hundreds of new actors but settled for the comparatively lesser known actor.

Studio buzz has it that Culkin is overjoyed at the prospect of working with Shyamalan. Though a little disappointed that Mark Ruffalo (who played his troubled uncle in You Can Count On Me) will not feature in the film along with him. Ruffalo dropped out due to health and date problems, to be replaced by Phoenix.

Shyamalan's films have been good for young actors. Even Wide Awake, which flopped (the film was made for about $3 million but grossed less than $500,000) made Joseph Cross a popular television and film actor.

The Sixth Sense, nominated for half a dozen key Oscars awards, got the nod for Haley Joel Osment.

Steven Spielberg cast Osment in a key role in his controversial A I: Artificial Intelligence. A US box office disappointment, it grossed about $78 million. But the film was successful in many countries, especially Japan where it has raked in about $80 million.

Like his previous two films, Shyamalan is shooting Signs in his home state, Philadelphia. The film revolves around the mysterious appearance of a 500-foot array of circles and lines carved into the crops of a family's farm.

Signs is Shyamalan's fourth film with Disney. While Wide Awake flopped, his next two films for Disney, The Sixth Sense (grossing $650 million globally) and Unbreakable (grossing $250 million worldwide) were big hits.

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