M. Night Shyamalan and Nicholas Sparks. It’s not exactly a creative pairing anyone would have confidently predicted, but the first teaser for Remain makes the combination look rather intriguing. Jake Gyllenhaal and Phoebe Dynevor flirt, play games and grow increasingly close in what initially resembles a straight-up romantic drama. And then Shyamalan’s side of the equation begins creeping in. Is she a ghost? Is something happening to him? Or is the teaser deliberately pointing us in the wrong direction? Watch the teaser above and get the info (no spoilers) below.
Something Isn’t Right About This Romance
Gyllenhaal plays Tate, a reclusive architect who moves to a small coastal town for his latest project and meets Dynevor’s Wren, a young woman who quickly begins pulling him out of his shell.
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The chemistry is very much there. They laugh, dance, play chess and edge closer together, with Tate telling her, “You’re not like anybody I’ve ever met.”
But there’s clearly something keeping them apart. “Why can’t we be together, Tate?” Wren asks. His response is considerably less comforting: “I think you know.”
Tate hears Wren in a bathroom, opens the door and appears to find her standing in the darkness. He switches on the light and she’s gone. From there, the images become increasingly frantic and unsettling, while the teaser offers the rather ominous instruction to “trust the unknown.”
It certainly wants us considering a supernatural explanation, but this is Shyamalan we’re talking about. Taking the first apparent answer at face value probably isn’t wise.
The official premise isn’t much more revealing. Tate’s relationship with the mysterious young woman eventually draws him into “a deadly mystery that hangs over the town,” leaving the exact nature of Wren, their connection and whatever is happening around them firmly under wraps.
Gyllenhaal and Dynevor are joined by a cast that includes Ashley Walters, Julie Hagerty, Jay O. Sanders and Tracy Ifeachor, among others. Shyamalan himself is also in the cast, according to IMDb, playing a character named Nash.
How Shyamalan and Sparks Built Remain
This isn’t simply Shyamalan adapting a Nicholas Sparks novel. The pair developed the original story together before taking it in two different directions: Shyamalan wrote the screenplay he would direct, while Sparks turned the same story into a novel.
The Remain book was published in October 2025 and became a No. 1 New York Times bestseller, meaning the answers are technically already out there for anyone determined to go looking. For moviegoers wanting to experience Shyamalan’s version cold, though, the teaser is wisely keeping its cards close.
There’s also a curious bit of history behind the collaboration. Sparks has revealed that Shyamalan was once approached to work on the screenplay for The Notebook when he was still relatively unknown, but he didn’t take the job, with The Sixth Sense among the projects occupying him at the time.
Now, decades later, the filmmaker behind The Sixth Sense, Signs, Split and Trap has finally made a Nicholas Sparks romance. It just happens to come with vanishing women, ominous warnings and what at least looks like a supernatural problem.
A Shyamalan Movie for Valentine’s Day
Remain was initially scheduled to hit cinemas in October 2026, a date that would have positioned the supernatural thriller close to Halloween. Warner Bros. subsequently moved it to February 2027, putting the romance firmly front and centre in the lead-up to Valentine’s Day.
TheWrap reported that the romance angle helped drive the move and that sources said Remain had received the highest test-screening scores of Shyamalan’s career. Considering how wildly audiences have responded to different films across his career, that’s certainly an eye-catching claim.
There’s some notable talent behind the camera, too. Brazilian cinematographer Adolpho Veloso, who earned an Oscar nomination earlier this year for his striking work on Train Dreams, marks his first collaboration with Shyamalan on Remain.
Editor Noëmi Preiswerk, on the other hand, is very familiar with the filmmaker. Their collaboration began on Shyamalan’s Apple TV series Servant, before Preiswerk went on to edit Knock at the Cabin and Trap. She’s back in the editing room for Remain.
And there’s another reunion on the music side. James Newton Howard is composing the score, marking his first Shyamalan feature since 2013’s After Earth. Their earlier run together included The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs and The Village.
Release Date
Remain opens in Australian cinemas on February 4 and U.S. cinemas on February 5, 2027.
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