Universal Gives M. Night Shyamalan's New Movie a Release Date

M. Night Shyamalan has established himself as one of the most buzzworthy horror directors of our time, and it sounds like we now know when his latest project will be hitting theaters. On Tuesday, Universal Pictures announced that Shyamalan's next film will be released on July 23, 2021. The film was originally tentatively scheduled for February of 2021, but that release date was delayed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This new release date will (at the moment) place the film up against The Tomorrow War, an upcoming sci-fi film that will star Chris Pratt, J.K. Simmons, and Betty Gilpin.

Shyamalan's next film is largely shrouded in mystery, with plot details and even the film's title currently being unknown. Last month, the principal cast of the film was announced, with Alex Wolff (Hereditary, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle), Eliza Scanlen (Little Women, Sharp Objects), Thomasin McKenzie (Jojo Rabbit, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies), Aaron Pierre (Krypton), and Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread) all in talks for the project.

This film will be part of Shyamalan's newest two-film deal with Universal Pictures, with another film currently slated for a February 2023 release date. It will also mark his latest horror project after the Apple TV+ series Servant, which was 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."

What do you think of M. Night Shyamalan's latest film officially getting a release date? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!