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 now reached store shelves and is available for purchase at THIS LINK, and the Shyamalan film will reach theatres in one year, just in time for Halloween, as Warner Bros. Pictures has given it an October 23, 2026 release date. While doing press for his book, Sparks revealed that the two versions of the story might have different twists.
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).
Sparks revealed to Variety that he and Shyamalan have known each other ever since New Line Cinema asked the filmmaker to write the screenplay for the film adaptation of Sparks’ The Notebook – a job Shyamalan turned down because he was busy working on The Sixth Sense. For this project, they each pitched an idea to each other that was a mixture of romance and the supernatural. Remain was Shyamalan’s pitch, and they might circle back to Sparks’ pitch (“a good love story, little scary”) at some point down the line. Sparks added, “When you read the book, the last page is a little bit of a wink to Night and his past work.” As for the twist, “One of the questions I asked Night about is, do you want the ending to be the same? Do you want the twist to be the same? And we made a decision about that. You’ve gotta read the book and see the movie.“
Will you be reading the Nicholas Sparks book, and are you looking forward to the M. Night Shyamalan movie? Share your thoughts on Remain by leaving a comment below.
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