The “Sixth Sense” director and romance author co-wrote the book on which the supernatural love story is based.

Jake Gyllenhaal sees spooky Phoebe Dynevor in first look at M. Night Shyamalan and Nicholas Sparks’ Remain

The “Sixth Sense” director and romance author co-wrote the book on which the supernatural love story is based.

By Derek Lawrence

Derek Lawrence

Derek Lawrence is a former associate editor at **. He left EW in 2022.

EW's editorial guidelines

September 8, 2026 4:37 p.m. ET

Leave a Comment

Jake Gyllenhaal in ‘Remain’. Credit:

Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

- Jake Gyllenhaal stars in the first trailer for M. Night Shyamalan’s *Remain*.

- The new film is adapted from last year’s book of the same name, co-written by Shyamalan and Nicholas Sparks.

- The supernatural romance opens in theaters on February 5, 2027.

M. Night Shyamalan has Jake Gyllenhaal seeing things.

On Tuesday, Warner Bros. released the first look at *Remain*, the new supernatural romantic thriller from Shyamalan and *The Notebook* author, Nicholas Sparks. Gyllenhaal stars as reclusive architect Tate Gordon, who moves to a small coastal town to complete his latest project. He soon meets an alluring young woman, Wren (Phoebe Dynevor), and comes out of his shell, only to find himself in the center of a deadly mystery.

The trailer starts off as a typical Sparks adaptation, with Tate and Wren arriving at a beautiful home, where they play games, until things take a Shyamalan-type twist.

“You worried,” Wren asks. “You should be.”

*Remain* is being billed an “otherworldy collaboration” between Shyamalan and Sparks, two of the best at what they do. The unexpected duo, both credited on the novel released last year, created the story together. Shyamalan then wrote and directed the film.

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our ******EW Dispatch newsletter******.***

Shyamalan broke through in 1999 with the Oscar-nominated phenomenon, *The Sixth Sense*. He’s since navigated some swings and misses, fully bouncing back over the last decade, releasing a consistent string of hits, including *Split*, *Glass*, and *Old*. *Remain* will be Shyamalan’s first film since 2024’s Josh Hartnett-led *Trap*.

I see hot people: M. Night Shyamalan, Jake Gyllenhaal, Nicholas Sparks teaming up for thriller

M. Night Shyamalan movies, ranked

For a stretch in the 2000s, Sparks’ novels sparked constant movie adaptations, with seven of his works becoming films between 2010 and 2016. But *Remain* is the first Sparks project to land on the big screen since 2016’s *The Choice*.

Speaking on *Good Morning America* in 2025, Sparks revealed that Shyamalan was “one of the writers ... approached to adapt *The Notebook* for screen.”

“You know why he couldn’t do it? ‘Cause he was doing *The Sixth Sense*,” Sparks shared.

Also featuring Ashley Walters, Julie Hagerty, and Jay O. Sanders, *Remain* opens in theaters on February 5, 2027.

- Thriller & Mystery Movies

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Thriller”