It looks like M. Night Shyamalan is back at what he does best — a slow-burn, creepy thriller — this time with a very unusual collaborator. No, we’re not talking about Jake Gyllenhaal; if nothing else, Source Code demonstrated that he’s a perfect lead for a twisty film with a fantastical premise. Nor is it lead actress Phoebe Dynevor, who has been in both Bridgerton and the shark thriller Thrash. Rather, if you don’t pay close attention to production announcements, the “twist” in the trailer is that Shyamalan is collaborating with Nicholas Sparks, writer of The Notebook.
Videos by ComicBook.com
The two storytellers nearly collaborated on The Notebook back when Shyamalan’s best-known movie was the Rosie O’Donnell dramedy Wide Awake (see how that ranks among all of the Shyamalan oeuvre). Sparks wanted him to do a rewrite of The Notebook then; he opted to do The Sixth Sense instead, and the rest was cinema history for both of them. Now, they have this merging of the minds. Check out the Remain trailer below:
The Book Won’t Spoil Everything
Like Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke with 2001: A Space Odyssey, Shyamalan and Sparks worked separately on the movie and the novel, respectively, after coming up with the story. The book came out last year, but Sparks has said that all the twists won’t be the same. One thing we can count on is that it should be equal parts romance and thriller, as both men wanted a story that worked in both their primary fields.
Per the official synopsis, “When reclusive architect Tate Gordon moves to small coastal town to complete his latest project, he encounters an alluring young woman who pulls him out of his shell, and into the center of a deadly mystery that hangs over the town.”
The trailer looks a lot more like Shyamalan than Sparks, teasing a couple seemingly having fun before something goes drastically wrong, and a dramatically placed curtain does double duty, suggesting a possible ghost twist. Will Tate be merely haunted by a memory, or an actual haunting? Both creatives have their favorite approaches, and it remains to be seen how they’ll blend them to please both their fanbases…if they can. Shyamalan’s not typically a romance guy, preferring families to be at the heart of any tale he tells about love, and love threatened.
Rapper-actor Ashley Walters (Netflix’s Adolescence) and Julie Hagerty are also in the cast. Shyamalan will once again appear in a small role, as is his wont. The trailer positions it as a Valentine’s Day release; Remain actually comes out a little earlier, opening February 3rd internationally and February 5th in the U.S.
More Movies
-
Photo by Archive Photos/Getty Images -
Image Courtesy of Universal Pictures
