M. Night Shyamalan starts work on his next movie before Remain is even finished
The director won’t be putting their feet up — they want to keep busy.
I know what you’re thinking — M. Night Shyamalan is never short of new projects. The man’s basically a one-man suspense factory, and he doesn’t seem to take weekends off. If you’re following along, he’s not only about to launch his upcoming thriller Remain, but he’s already got his mind ticking away on whatever his next cinematic mystery will be. And yes, he’s let slip some actual details — well, as much as a director famous for secrecy ever does.
Shyamalan took to his own YouTube channel with a new video charmingly titled 'I Started writing My Next Movie Today', setting the scene by chatting about how he begins the writing process for each new story. He actually flashed his notebook at the camera — a proper director’s scribble-pad, not just the back of a till receipt — and said he’s been working through ideas for this script for quite a while. He officially decided, as of now, that this is the one getting his full attention to be steered all the way to the big screen.
Shyamalan explained in his video that 'still finishing up Remain, just the last little things to do. A little bit of sound touch-ups and a couple of CGI things. But I kind of overlap writing and finishing the movie all the time.'
That workflow might sound like madness, but for him, it’s business as usual. He’s always got one film on the verge of release while the next is taking shape in the background. It goes a long way to explaining how he manages to drop a new film pretty much every other year, even as the details of each one are kept shrouded until the last minute — classic Shyamalan.
His most recent release before Remain was the thriller Trap, which had Josh Hartnett in the starring role. Remain will see Jake Gyllenhaal joining the auteur’s stable — not a bad get for a director who famously attracts A-listers even when they’re not sure what ending they’re signing up for.