Jake Gyllenhaal Lands Lead Role in M. Night Shyamalan’s Next Film

Jake Gyllenhaal at the Hollywood Film Awards in 2017
Jake Gyllenhaal at the Hollywood Film Awards in 2017. Photo by Matt Baron/REX/Shutterstock (9190187hp)

Jake Gyllenhaal has worked with some of Hollywood’s best directors over the years, and he’s gearing up for another epic collaboration. The Oscar-nominated actor landed the lead role in M. Night Shyamalan’s next film, which he developed alongside the romance novelist Nicholas Sparks.

This untitled project has been described as a supernatural romantic thriller, based on an original story co-created by Shyamalan and Sparks. They’re independently writing a screenplay and a novel based on the same concept, but tailored to their respective mediums.

Shyamalan is producing the film through his Blinding Edge Pictures banner, along with his partner Ashwin Rajan. Sparks is also coming on board as a producer, alongside his regular producers Theresa Park and Marc Bienstock.

Blinding Edge Pictures is in talks with Warner Bros. for theatrical release. The studio previously distributed Shyamalan’s black comedy thriller Trap, marking the end of the director’s decade-long partnership with Universal.

Jake Gyllenhaal is in talks to lead this promising project, after another pretty eventful year. We’ve recently seen him lead Amazon’s remake of the action classic Road House and the Apple TV+ crime drama Presumed Innocent. He’ll next appear in Guy Ritchie’s thriller In the Grey and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s monster movie The Bride!