Jake Gyllenhaal, M. Night Shyamalan, and Nicholas Sparks are cinema's newest team

Every once in a while an entertainment collaboration comes along that feels like someone put a bunch of names in a hat and drew out a few at random. Such is the latest news from the Hollywood trades, which report that M. Night Shyamalan, Nicholas Sparks, and Jake Gyllenhaal are teaming up for a new “romantic thriller.” Per Deadline, Shyamalan and Sparks came up with the original story together, and will independently write it as a screenplay and a novel: “Both projects will be based on the same concept and set of characters, but tailored to their respective mediums.” Gyllenhaal is in talks to star.

Shyamalan and Sparks are an odd couple, to be sure. Shyamalan is known for horror thrillers like The Sixth Sense and Signs. Sparks is known for schmaltzy romantic dramas like The Notebook and A Walk To Remember. Yet under the surface perhaps they do share a similar sensibility. Both tend to explore family dynamics and employ surprise (and arguably emotionally manipulative) twists. Gyllenhaal, on the other hand, feels like a much easier fit with Shyamalan; the crazed intensity he’s brought to roles like Nightcrawler would be well suited for a project like Shyamalan’s Trap or Split. Alternately, a younger Gyllenhaal wouldn’t have been out of place in a Sparks romance (his version of that would be 2010’s Love And Other Drugs). 

According to Deadline, Shyamalan’s Blinding Edge Pictures is in discussions with Warner Bros. for a theatrical release of the film, with Sparks on board as an executive producer. In 2022 it was reported that Sparks had a three-picture deal with Universal to adapt more of his novels, which has not yet come to fruition—the last Sparks adaptation to hit the big screen was The Choice in 2016. (As it happens, Shyamalan also had a decade-long partnership with Universal before releasing Trap with WB.) However this project may evolve, it marks the highest-profile collaboration with another writer in Shyamalan’s illustrious career.