A while back, it was announced that The Sixth Sense director M. Night Shyamalan and The Notebook author Nicholas Sparks were teaming up for a supernatural romantic thriller called Remain. Shyamalan and Sparks created the original story together, with Shyamalan going off to write a screenplay based on the story while Sparks turned the idea into a novel. As was said at the time, “Both will be based on the same concept and set of characters but designed for their individual mediums.” The Sparks novel has since reached store shelves and is available for purchase at THIS LINK. Shyamalan’s movie is set to be released on February 5, 2027 – but test screenings have already been held, and Shyamalan says it’s the highest-testing movie of his career.
What is Remain about?
Sparks’ novel has the following description: A one-of-a-kind novel that grapples with the supernatural mysteries of life, death, and human connection—an unprecedented collaboration between the globally bestselling author of love stories like The Notebook and the renowned writer and director of blockbuster thrillers like The Sixth Sense.
When New York architect Tate Donovan arrives in Cape Cod to design his best friend’s summer home, he is hoping to make a fresh start. Recently discharged from an upscale psychiatric facility where he was treated for acute depression, he is still wrestling with the pain of losing his beloved sister. Sylvia’s deathbed revelation—that she can see spirits who are still tethered to the living world, a gift that runs in their family—sits uneasily with Tate, who struggles to believe in more than what reason can explain. But when he takes up residence at a historic bed-and-breakfast on the Cape, he encounters a beautiful young woman named Wren who will challenge every assumption he has about his logical and controlled world. Tate and Wren find themselves forging an immediate connection, one that neither has ever experienced before.
But Tate gradually discovers that below the surface of Wren’s idyllic small-town life, hatred, jealousy, and greed are festering, threatening their fragile relationship just as it begins to blossom. Tate realizes that in order to free Wren from an increasingly desperate fate, he will need to unearth the truth about her past before time runs out . . . a quest that will make him doubt whether we can ever believe the stories we tell about ourselves, and the laws that govern our existence. Love—while transformative—can sometimes be frightening.
A story about the power of transcendent emotion, Remain asks us all: Can love set us free not only from our greatest sorrows, but even from the boundaries of life and death?
Shyamalan’s film stars Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko), Phoebe Dynevor (Bridgerton), Julie Hagerty (Airplane), Jay O. Sanders (When You Finishing Saving the World) Tracy Ifeachor (The Pitt), Hannah James (Mercy Street), Caleb Ruminer (The Irrational), Kieran Mulcare (Jessica Jones), Maria Dizzia (My Old Ass), and award-winning actor, producer, director and recording artist Ashley Walters (Adolescence).
What did Shyamalan say about Remain?
Shyamalan took the stage at Warner Bros. Discovery’s upfront presentation to advertisers in New York today, and The Hollywood Reporter shared the following quote:
“My new movie began with a conversation, an unexpected one, with a celebrated author, Nicholas Sparks. He sold more than 130 million books worldwide and wrote one of the most iconic love stories ever, The Notebook. Romance is his territory. Mine’s a little different. I’m drawn to suspense, to twists and tension and stories that leave you just a little unsettled long after they are over. That feels like home to me.
We started from nothing, just a couple of questions: What scares you? What moves you? What stays with you? We challenged each other. We traded ideas and slowly wove two very different perspectives into a single, thrilling, supernatural love story. In the end, we get to tell it our own way. Mine through film, Nicholas through his novel.
The novel is not a novelization, and the film is not an adaptation. It’s two storytellers telling the story of Remain in their own way. Together, we created the story of recluse architect Tate Gordon, who moves to a small coastal town to complete his latest project when he encounters a beguiling young woman who pulls him out of his shell and into the center of a deadly mystery that hangs over this town.
Just between us, it’s my highest-testing movie of my career. We’re now in post-production, finding every detail. Honestly, my hope is that when you experience Remain, you feel both sides of it at once — full of love and that quiet, lingering unease that doesn’t let you go.“
Are you interested in Remain, and are you hyped to hear that it’s the highest-testing Shyamalan movie to date? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.
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