Jake Gyllenhaal is making the visit to M. Night Shyamalan for the writer-director’s next feature, which will share a story with a new original romance novel by Nicholas Sparks. The original narrative is a collaboration between Sparks and Shyamalan, with the former writing a book and the latter writing a screenplay independently.
The film marks Shyamalan’s second time making a feature from literary material, after adapting Paul Tremblay’s horror novel “The Cabin at the End of the World” into the 2023 apocalyptic thriller “Knock at the Cabin.” Whether or not this new project technically qualifies as an adaptation is a bit up in the air, since Sparks and Shyamalan are tailoring the same story to their respective mediums in parallel efforts.
Shyamalan and Ashwin Rajan are producing the film through their Blinding Edge Pictures. Sparks’ regular producers Theresa Park and Marc Bienstock are also on board. Sparks serves as executive producer.
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No studio is attached to the project yet. Warner Bros. distributed Shyamalan’s last feature, the black comedy thriller “Trap,” which released last August and earned $82 million at the global box office. Prior to “Trap,” Shyamalan had a decade-long partnership with Universal.
Gyllenhaal was last seen in Amazon MGM’s remake of the action classic “Road House,” which the company claims broke streaming records for Prime Video upon debut. The actor also starred in Apple TV+’s acclaimed crime series “Presumed Innocent.” He will next be seen in Guy Ritchie’s thriller “In the Grey” and the monster movie “The Bride!,” directed by his sister, Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Sparks is a best-selling author whose novels have sold north of 130 million copies globally. Previous Hollywood adaptations of his work include hits like “The Notebook” and “Dear John.”
News of the project was first reported by Jeff Sneider.