Most of them, anyway. Joaquin Phoenix and Mel Gibson probably won’t grace the event with their presence, but M. Night Shyamalan is now officially one of three keynote speakers at next month’s 3D Entertainment Summit. Just for perspective, the other two keynoters are Chris Cookson, the driving force behind 3D at Sony Pictures, and Jeffrey Katzenberg, the driving force behind 3D at Dreamworks Animation. Shyamalan, by contrast, has had precisely no involvement with 3D, beyond writing and directing a critically panned movie that underwent 3D conversion post-production, resulting in a visual mess that A. O. Scott famously said was best viewed with your eyes closed. So why is he on the schedule? The press release doesn’t really answer this question:

Using new creative techniques to tell stories with fierce and brilliant intelligence has been the hallmark of M. Night Shyamalan’s remarkable career, and we look forward to his insights into the immersive narrative possibilities of 3D as one of our Keynote Speakers.”

“Remarkable” would be one way to describe his career, I guess. Despite the fact that critics pounded the movie like a red-headed stepchild, right now The Last Airbender is doing rather well at the the box office. Meanwhile, 3D in general appears to be tanking. In a few years, expect to see Shyamalan hosting the Oscars in recognition of his next hugely successful film, which somehow managed to destroy the entire movie industry.