The Watchers is the feature directorial debut of M. Night Shyamalan’s daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan. Back in February, it was announced that the movie had changed its release date from June 7th to June 14th. It was speculated that the change was to avoid being released the same week as Lionsgate’s The Crow. However, it was recently announced that The Crow was being delayed until August, and now The Watchers is going back to its original June 7th release date. While the movie will no longer be competing with The Crow, it will be hitting theaters the same day as Sony’s Bad Boys: Ride or Die.
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The Watchers stars Dakota Fanning (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Ocean’s Eight), Georgina Campbell (Barbarian, Suspicion), Oliver Finnegan (Creeped Out, Outlander), and Olwen Fouere (The Northman, The Tourist). The film is produced by M. Night Shyamalan, Ashwin Rajan, and Nimitt Mankad. The executive producers are Jo Homewood and Stephen Dembitzer.
Joining writer/director Shyamalan behind the camera are director of photography Eli Arenson (Lamb, Hospitality), production designer Ferdia Murphy (Lola, Finding You), editor Job ter Burg (Benedetta, Elle), and costume design by Frank Gallacher (Sebastian, Aftersun). The music is by Abel Korzeniowski (Till, The Nun).
The Watchers is based on a novel by A.M. Shine, and follows an artist (Fanning) named Mina “who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland.” Mina eventually finds shelter, but she “unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.”
Shyamalan recently shared the magic that was discovered on the project once she amassed the cast and crew.
“Well, it was very much just imagining what the four or five of these people were like, and what they would be like together. Then, as the continual lesson that I learned during the filmmaking process, there’s just a certain alchemy that happens,” the filmmaker revealed during a Q&A in which ComicBook.com was in attendance. “If you’re lucky enough to catch it, you do. With this path, there were all these movements that just led to this group being together. They have such an electric energy when they’re all together. It’s really, really cool. It’s so fun. It felt like theater!”
The Watchers lands in theaters on June 7th. Stay tuned for more updates about 2024’s upcoming slate of films.
