M. Night Shyamalan Reveals Title, Poster for Next Film as Production Begins

Work on M. Night Shyamalan‘s next thriller is officially underway. After being delayed earlier in the year due to the coronavirus pandemic, Shyamalan and cast have assembled on location to begin rolling cameras on the project, something made apparent by a new post the filmmaker made on social media. Not only did the Glass filmmaker reveal the production has started, but he also revealed the movie is called Old, even going the length to release the first teaser poster for the work.

The poster itself sets an ominous tone for what’s to come. Completely in black and white, a scientific flask is being filled with human bodies as some seemingly appear to be dissipating. Shyamalan shared the poster along with a picture of himself wearing a facemask while holding a director’s slate, complying with a new coronavirus-related norm.

Set for release in July 2021, Old is the first movie in a two-film deal the filmmaker struck with Universal earlier this year. The cast for the film includes Alex Wolff (Hereditary), Eliza Scanlen (Little Women), Thomasin McKenzie (Jojo Rabbit), Aaron Pierre (Krypton), and Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread). Also on his plate is Apple TV+’s Servant, which has already been renewed for a second season.

“I’m loving this approach from The Visit on where they’re minimal, contained, I own them, we take big tonal risks and try to hit that note of absurd-but-grounded, that dark humor moment and deal with some complicated things and not necessarily take the audience where they’re comfortable, both during or even at the end,” Shyamalan said in an interview late last year. “That’s all mitigated because we’re working with a respectable number and I feel like I’m being a good partner to my distributors. I like that because it allows me to iterate really fast in the making of these stories, so those films follow that architecture of approach and process. Even if it’s tricking myself into being more dangerous, it’s working because when I think about these three films that I’m thinking about—all weird and dark—I think that they speak to each other a little bit.”

“I just had two movie ideas I felt very strongly about. For me, there are ideas and they’re in journals sometimes and they don’t quite have the meat yet or whatever that thing is that makes it so I’m ready to commit two years of my life to making this—to writing and directing this—some of those ideas don’t have that yet. They have to gestate a little bit. But there were two ideas where right away I was thinking about making them. And, interesting enough, there might be a third thing that came to me that might end up going in between these two. So there might be three.”

Cover photo by Rachel Luna/Getty Images