Filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan has secured A-list actor Jake Gyllenhaal in his next directorial – a collaboration with author Nicholas Sparks. According to Deadline, the film is a supernatural romantic-thriller based on an original story crafted by Shyamalan and Sparks. The pair are also working together on a book based on the same plot and characters but will differ according to the medium, promising to be a unique experience.
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Though the film is not an adaptation of an existing novel, it marks a return for Shyamalan to the realm of literary adaptations. His film Knock at the Cabin (2023) is based on the 2018 novel The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul G. Tremblay.
Shyamalan's production banner, Blinding Edge Pictures, will bankroll the project. The filmmaker’s last directorial venture was the 2024 psychological-thriller Trap, starring Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Night Shyamalan, Hayley Mills, and Alison Pill. The film was a commercial success minting over USD 82 million against a USD 30 million budget.
Shyamalan, who made his directorial debut in the 1992 film Praying with Anger, earned his big break with the 1999 psychological-thriller film The Sixth Sense – starring Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Olivia Williams, and Haley Joel Osment – which gained him his first and only Academy Award nomination.
Jake Gyllenhaal last appeared on-screen in the 2024 Doug Liman film Road House and has two releases lined up for 2025 – Guy Ritchie’s In the Grey and his sister, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride!