In her feature film directorial debut, Ishana Shyamalan will take the reins from her father, M. Night Shyamalan, to create the upcoming horror mystery film, The Watchers. She has been carving out her writing and directing career since age 19 by working alongside him as a writer, producer, and director for M. Night’s Apple TV+ series Servant. The show, which is in its fourth and final season, includes ten episodes written by Ishana, and out of the six that she also directed, two were season finales. The now-22-year-old director also worked alongside her father as an assistant director for his 2021 movie Old, and the 2023 film Knock At The Cabin.
Ishana’s upcoming film, The Watchers, was picked up by New Line Cinema earlier last year, with President and Chief Creative Officer Richard Brener stating “The script grips you from the first page and never lets you go.” This article will let you know everything there is to know about the upcoming movie.
Editor’s Note: This piece was updated on February 29, 2024.
The Watchers
- Release Date
- June 7, 2024
- Director
- Ishana Shyamalan
- Cast
- Dakota Fanning , Georgina Campbell , Olwen Fouéré , Siobhan Hewlett
- Writers
- A.M. Shine , Ishana Shyamalan
Does ‘The Watchers’ Have a Release Date?
While initially set to come out on June 7, Ishana just recently announced that she is pushing the release date back so that The Watchers will come out on Father’s Day weekend, June 14, 2024.
As there’s been a recent surge in pushing to bring exclusive theatrical releases back, the movie will only be released in theaters at first but will then have a streaming release at a later date. With New Line Cinema (and parent company Warner Bros. Pictures), the movie will most likely be available to stream on Max (formerly HBO Max) after its theatrical run and available to purchase or rent on other streaming services like Amazon Prime or Google Play.
Is There a Trailer for ‘The Watchers’?
Yes, there is! The official trailer was just recently released by Warner Bros. Pictures. The Watchers themselves have yet to be revealed in the trailer, but you can get an idea of what kind of creatures they are in this 2-minute teaser trailer. If you’ve ever kept pets in a glass tank, such as fish, hamsters, or even an ant farm… you’ll soon know what it feels like to be observed for entertainment. Check the trailer out below!
What Is ‘The Watchers’ About?
The Watchers is based on the A.M. Shine novel of the same name and will follow 28-year-old Mina as she travels the Western Irish countryside. After Mina’s car breaks down, she is forced to continue on foot in search of assistance. As she wanders through the forest and darkness begins to set, a strange woman screams at her, urging her to get inside a nearby concrete bunker quickly. Inside, she meets three strangers, all of whom look equally terrified. With the door shut, leaving them in darkness, an automatic light turns on, revealing a glass wall to the outside.
Monstrous underground creatures emerge from the depths of the forest once the sun has disappeared and begin to observe the people trapped inside the enclosure. The four strangers are essentially on display like zoo animals. Mina has no idea what The Watchers want from them, or worse, what will happen if anyone is unable to make it into the bunker before nightfall. One common denominator between Mina and her fellow captives is that they all come from situations where nobody will come looking for them.
If Mina escapes, will she be able to make it out of the forest before darkness falls? The novel has been described as a combination of Cabin In The Woods and Lost, so the story appears to be in good hands with both Ishana writing the screenplay.
The official synopsis for The Watchers by Warner Bros. reads:
The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.
Who’s In the Cast of ‘The Watchers’?
As of right now, only two cast members have been confirmed. Dakota Fanning, will be playing the protagonist, Mina. Fanning has been acting for most of her life, from her earliest roles in movies such as I Am Sam, Man on Fire, and War of the Worlds to more adult roles like in The Twilight Saga, Ocean’s Eight, and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. Mina’s character in the novel is a struggling artist without a steady income. She pays her rent primarily by selling a few commissioned paintings and gambling at card games at her local pub in Galway, Ireland.
Georgina Campbell will co-star with Fanning in The Watchers, as one of the other two women that Mina is trapped with. The English actress made a splash as the protagonist in Zach Cregger’s thriller, Barbarian, and starred in the series Suspicion. In addition to Campbell, Olwen Fouéré joins the cast as the other woman in the bunker, named Madeline. Fouéré is an Irish actress, fluent in both English and French. She’s best known for her portrayal of Sally Hardesty in the 2022 remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and was also featured in The Northman and Mandy. Oliver Finnegan (Outlander) will play a character named Daniel, who has also found himself in the same predicament as the other three women. Also listed in the cast list are Alistair Brammer (Les Misérables) as a character named John, Hannah Howland (Arthur’s Whisky) as Chloe, Siobhan Hewlett (Sherlock) as Mina’s mother, Anthony Morris (Game of Thrones) as Burke, Jacob Greenway (Father Brown) as Jordan, and Shane O’Regan (The Shamrock Spitfire) as Collin.
Similarly to M. Night Shyamalan’s films Knock At The Cabin, Devil, and Split, this movie will have a relatively small cast, as the main characters are in isolation with no communication with the outside world. In the novel, Mina’s character finds herself trapped in the bunker with Madeline, who called her inside on the first night, another woman (played by Georgina Campbell) and Daniel. A few other characters are mentioned within the novel, but it’s unclear what roles they will play in the upcoming film just yet. Considering the movie is an adaptation of the novel, we can only assume that the story will stay close to the source material unless there are drastic changes in the screenplay adaptation.
When and Where Did ‘The Watchers’ Film?
Filming took place in Dublin, Wicklow, and Galway in Ireland last year in July and wrapped in September. Halfway through filming, this project was granted an interim agreement to continue shooting despite the SAG-AFTRA strike.
Who Is Making ‘The Watchers’?
As previously stated, Ishana Night Shyamalan will be making her feature directorial debut with The Watchers, after having worked with her father on the series Servant. M. Night Shyamalan and Ashwin Rajan will produce the film through their production company, Blinding Edge Pictures, Inimitable Pictures’ producer Nimitt Mankad, and executive producers Jo Homewood and Stephen Dembitzer.
Inshana Shyamalan’s Filmography
Since this film will be Ishana Shyamalan’s first feature debut, the only way to gauge her directorial chops would be to watch some of the episodes of Servant that she wrote and directed. In an interview that M. Night Shyamalan gave regarding her involvement in the series, he said he brought her on board after being impressed with the short films she created while attending NYU. He added that each episode of Servant was essentially a short film in and of itself, as each episode has a 30-minute runtime.
If you have an Apple TV subscription, you can see her directing skills come to life in Seasons 2, 3, and 4. In Season 2, Shyamalan wrote and directed Episode 3, “Pizza,” and the season finale, “Josephine.” In Season 3, she wrote and directed Episode 2, “Hive,” and the season finale, “Mama.” Lastly, in the fourth and final season, she wrote and directed Episodes 3 and 7, titled “Séance” and “Myth,” respectively.
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