The following article has been published in the newspaper Hindustan Times, India, on August 2, 2002.
Linda Howe, 58, a former documentary filmmaker, has written several books on circles. Asked if one could be used in the film, 'Signs' she said no.
"It would have been a reference book that Mel Gibson would have been going through," she said. "They wanted to put an image there with murder or death or danger, something to do with dark fear. I could not have my book tied in with any wrong information with crop formations."
'Signs' producer Frank Marshall said the circles are merely a hook for Shyamalan to tell a story of a man struggling with his beliefs. "The movie isn't really about crop circles. It's just one of the stories that exist within the movie," he said.
But he added that the crop circles in the movie, filmed in Bucks County, Pa., are "totally based on the research. The cornstalks are not broken, they're bent. They're very geometric. They're very realistic. Our crop circles are as authentic as the ones that are found around the world."
Dutch researcher Eltjo Hasselhoff, 39, said he is happy to see crop circles used as a theme. "But I do believe there is a mystery about the crop circle phenomenon. The information you find about crop circles is often completely wrong," he said.
