Ishana Night Shyamalan's The Watchers - What We Know So Far
Turning horror books into popular films is something that the film industry has been doing for decades. There are several film adaptations of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" and Bram Stoker's "Dracula." "The Silence of the Lambs" by Thomas Harris became a blockbuster film that won five Academy Awards in 1992 and has since led to a TV series named "Clarice."
And the page-to-screen trend is continuing to create plenty of buzz with the recently popular "Fear Street" film trilogy based on R.L. Stine's series of novels. Many may also recall the major buzz surrounding the recent adaptations of "It" by Stephen King and "Bird Box" by Josh Malerman.
More recently, it's the film adaptation of "The Cabin at the End of the World" by Paul Tremblay that's been creating plenty of conversations. Horror master M. Night Shyamalan is the filmmaker bringing this novel to the big screen under the name "Knock at the Cabin." And his daughter Ishana Night Shyamalan is now working on her own big-screen adaptation. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ishana is set to write and direct her first feature film entitled "The Watchers," based on the novel written by A.M. Shine. Here's what we know so far about the upcoming movie.
When will The Watchers be released?
According to The Hollywood Reporter, "The Watchers" will scare its way to theaters on June 7, 2024, and New Line Cinema's president and CCO, Richard Brener, said the company is excited about the upcoming film. Brener is no stranger to the horror genre, having worked on films throughout "The Conjuring" universe as well as the big-screen version of "It" and the sequel, "It: Chapter Two." And he's not the only horror film titan who's excited about this upcoming release.
M. Night Shyamalan is one of the producers from Blinding Edge Pictures that will be working on Ishana Night Shyamalan's film. The proud parent took to his @MNightShyamalan Twitter account to share his excitement. "I'll come visit your set now," he tweeted, along with a photo of him and Ishana on one of his movie sets when she was younger.
In January 2023, M. Night told The Hollywood Reporter that she was busy writing the script, recalling a recent conversation with her. "I was like, 'Where's the new draft? Let's go!' And she was like, 'I just have to work on one scene.' And I was like, 'I need to have it by this time,'" he said.
What is the plot of The Watchers?
Ishana Night Shyamalan is writing the script for "The Watchers," and the film is based on a novel of the same name written by A.M. Shine. The book was published in October of 2021 and follows the story of an artist named Mina who has been captured by creatures in the desolate woods in Ireland. But don't expect the film to be the same as the book. Her father is well known for his big-screen surprises, recently shocking fans of Paul Tremblay's novel "The Cabin at the End of World" with his big-screen adaptation that has a much different ending. So, there is no telling what shocking twists Ishana will create for fans of "The Watchers" novel.
Ishana explained her writing process while exclusively talking to Slash Film amid her work on "Servant" Season 3. "I think my creative experience, my creative process is all over the place. I'm a young artist. In many ways, I'm still figuring it out. I think it's been a process of learning how to be disciplined, which I know a lot of other writers struggle with as well," she said.
Who is directing The Watchers?
Ishana Night Shyamalan will be directing "The Watchers," and it's a role that she is very familiar with already. She started directing episodes of the Apple+ TV Series "Servant" during Season 2 while also producing and writing for the series, which follows a couple as they hire a mysterious nanny.
M. Night Shyamalan is the executive producer for the popular series, which is now in its fourth and final season. He told Entertainment Weekly that his daughter is just one of the filmmakers he hired for the series based on their work on short films. "I said to her, 'I think you should take this shot. I think you should take a semester off from school and you should come here and do this.' I just had an instinct that these were the right episodes for her," he said.
And she's already had some time on the big screen, working as a second unit director on "Knock at the Cabin" and on the aging thriller "Old."