If M. Night Shyamalan’s career can bounce back from The Happening and After Earth, it was probably folly to assume that COVID-19 (and the subsequent near-complete shutdown of the global film industry) was going to be able to keep him down for long. Hence the not entirely surprising news that Shyamalan is working on his next film, which we now know, courtesy of a Twitter post today, is apparently called Old.
The Glass director also released the first poster for the movie, which is apparently about a bunch of people trapped in an hourglass, having to cope with more people falling on top of them—truly, a spine-chilling thought, if you’re someone who’s deathly afraid of hourglasses. It’s also possible that the poster is more metaphorical, and Shyamalan is actually just confronting our in-grown fear of aging—something he’s touched on in his films before, most notably in his unexpected 2015 comeback The Visit, which derives much of its sense of unease from the feeling of being trapped in the unfamiliar routine of aging grandparents who are decidedly stuck in their ways.
Shyamalan started filming on the movie today, which is how we know the film will also apparently take place in a field, so it won’t be entirely confined to Hourglass World. There’s no word yet on when Old might eventually make its way to theaters, but as the movie’s tagline promises, we have to assume it’ll only be a matter of time (until you see the M. Night Shyamalan movie about people being trapped in a giant hourglass, that is).
Update, 5:22 p.m.: Collider has dug up a few more bits of info on Old, including the fact that it’s apparently inspired by Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters graphic novel Sandcastle, about a group of 13 people who become trapped on a beach (and rapidly start aging) after discovering a dead body there. Collider also notes that Shyamalan has announced the cast for the film, including Gael García Bernal, Eliza Scanlen, Thomasin McKenzie, Aaron Pierre, Alex Wolff, Vicky Krieps, Abbey Lee, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Ken Leung, Rufus Sewell, Embeth Davidtz, and Emun Elliott.