M Night Shyamalan is known to demand exacting preparation from his actors.

Nothing she did for the Alien flicks, we daresay, prepared Sigourney Weaver for the '19th-century boot camp' she attended before she began shooting Shyamalan's latest film, The Village, which releases in the US on Friday, July 30.

Weaver learnt how to make fire and plow fields for the film, which is set in the 19th century. 'I made my best friend a basket. I made my husband some mittens,' the actress told People magazine.

The Village had a grand premiere in New York on Monday, July 26.

The director, who turns 34 on August 6, will return to Pondicherry, where was born, for his next project. That is, a film based on Yann Martel's Booker Prize-winning novel The Life of Pi.