The Notebook Guy and the Sixth Sense Guy Joined Forces on a Jake Gyllenhaal Romantic Psychological Thriller Called “Remain”
· Thought Catalog
Updated 3 hours ago, September 9, 2026
Two of pop culture’s most recognizable storytellers are teaming up. Horror maestro M. Night Shyamalan and romance king Nicholas Sparks have joined forces on “Remain,” a supernatural romantic thriller set to hit theaters on February 5, 2027 via Warner Bros.
It’s a pairing decades in the making. Years ago, a young Shyamalan was tapped to adapt Sparks’ “The Notebook,” but he turned it down because he was already committed to what would become his breakout hit, “The Sixth Sense.” Nearly three decades later, the two finally reunited, agreeing that each would bring an original story idea that could work in both of their respective mediums. The result was “Remain,” developed simultaneously as a Sparks novel — a #1 New York Times bestseller released in October 2025 — and a Shyamalan-directed film.
Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Tate, a grieving architect who moves to Cape Cod for work after leaving a psychiatric facility. While staying in a historic town, he encounters an alluring, mysterious young woman named Wren, played by Phoebe Dynevor of “Bridgerton,” who pulls him out of his shell and into a deadly mystery hanging over the town. The supporting cast includes Ashley Walters, Julie Hagerty, Jay O. Sanders, Tracy Ifeachor, and Maria Dizzia. Shyamalan wrote, directed, and produced the film through his Blinding Edge Pictures banner, with James Newton Howard on scoring duties.
Sparks has praised the casting, noting that while he’d already worked with plenty of big names over his career, he was thrilled to have Gyllenhaal come aboard for this one.
And fittingly for a Shyamalan project, the trailer promises a twist — blending the tear-jerking emotional intimacy of a Sparks love story with the eerie psychological unease of Shyamalan’s best-known work.
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