The Watchers is heading to theaters next week, and the new horror film marks the feature directorial debut of M. Night Shyamalan’s daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan. The younger Shyamalan previously helmed episodes of Servant, and now she’s teaming up with Warner Bros. for The Watchers, which is adapted from A. M. Shine’s novel of the same name. The film 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). ComicBook recently had the chance to chat with Fanning and Campbell, and they shared what it was like to work with a first-time feature director.
“Yeah, she’s super, super excited. Always had a smile on her face, such a bright person and somebody that was clearly put on this earth to create,” Fanning said of Shyamalan. “She’s super creative, super collaborative, comes from a family of artists who love to make cool things, and so that’s inspiring to be around.”
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“She wrote this and was directing it and had such a clear vision of what she wanted to do and you can’t help but feel inspired to collaborate with someone like that,” Fanning continued.
“She was so passionate and excited and so everyone, all the producers, everything, it felt very energized and she just had so many ideas and had clearly thought about this for a long time,” Campbell added. “So it’s lovely being able to work with people when they’re that excited about projects.”
You can watch our interviews with Fanning and Campbell at the top of the page.
What Is The Watchers About?
The Watchers 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.”
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 film is produced by M. Night Shyamalan, Ashwin Rajan, and Nimitt Mankad. The executive producers are Jo Homewood and Stephen Dembitzer.
“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 from our interviews about The Watchers.
