M. Night Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin Adds Harry Potter Star Rupert Grint

For his Apple TV+ series Servant, filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan enlisted the help of Harry Potter star Rupert Grint to bring the terrifying tale to life, with the director once again recruiting the performer for his new project Knock at the Cabin. Grint isn’t the only former collaborator returning to work with Shyamalan, as Old star Nikki Amuka-Bird has also been cast in the new film, according to Deadline. The pair join the previously announced Dave Bautista in the project, which Shyamalan will write, produce, and direct. Knock at the Cabin is currently slated to be landing in theaters on February 3, 2023.

As with most Shyamalan projects, details of the story are largely being kept under wraps, although the title of the film surely implies the location of the adventure. 

Last year, the filmmaker did offer a small tease of the tone and pacing of the experience.

“I will tell you this: strangely, it was the fastest script I’ve ever written. Signs would have had that title prior to Knock at the Cabin,” Shyamalan shared with ComicBook.com while promoting Servant. “I probably think, in terms of both of them, that they have this movement, this event, that causes me to write it really fast. Hopefully, audiences will feel that when they come to see it. It is definitely in the wheelhouse of the things you’re seeing from me now, especially with Servant, this contained and gigantic event that’s occurring.”

Given his stature and physicality, Bautista has starred in a variety of action projects, though Shyamalan shared earlier this year that what made him excited to add the actor was his brief performance in Blade Runner 2049.

“I was really taken by what [director] Denis [Villeneuve] and Dave did in that scene in Blade Runner,” Shyamalan explained to The Hollywood Reporter. “He was still in a way that was powerful. There’s a type of stillness where you’re not doing nothing; you’re doing everything and you’re still. Your essence of what you’re thinking is coming off your body. I always tell actors that I can definitely shoot the back of you. If you watch the back of Heath Ledger at the beginning of The Dark Knight, the second I saw his back, I thought, ‘I’m seeing one of the greatest performances ever.’ I could see it just from the way he was standing.” 

The director continued, “Every cell in your body will do what it’s supposed to do if you’re thinking something correctly. So don’t just be blank. You have to think it. So don’t show me anything because your body is going to show me. And Dave was embodying all of this philosophy in that scene, and I thought he was a really unusual person because he is who he is and he’s that big. I didn’t know who he was at that time, and he stuck in my head. So when this script came, I was like, ‘There seems to be one guy who can play this giant human being and do the stillness.’ So I asked Dave.”

Stay tuned for details on Knock at the Cabin before it hits theaters on February 3, 2023.

Are you looking forward to the new movie? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!