When M. Night Shyamalan works on a set, he’s typically in the director’s chair. However, Shyamalan worked as a producer and second unit director on his daughter Ishana’s feature film directorial debut, The Watchers. For Shyamalan, working on the second unit “changed him” for the better.
“It’s the same job I’ve done my whole life but with a different intention,” Shyamalan said about working as the second unit director (via GamesRadar). “I have to deliver for [Ishana]. It’s not something I came up; it’s something she came up with. That created a different engine for me, when I was directing those scenes for her.”
“I almost became a student again from the beginning,” Shyamalan added. “Which is the dream – that you start to see it as new [again]. It changed me as [a] director for myself, for my new film.”
What to Expect in The Watchers?
“The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland,” the Warner Bros. synopsis reads. “When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night. You can’t see them, but they see everything.”
Dakota Fanning headlines The Watchers as Mina. Georgina Campbell, Oliver Finneg, and Olwen Fouéré also star.
The Watchers is written and directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan, based on the novel by A. M. Shine. Ishana was the second unit director on Old and Knock at the Cabin, two of her father’s films. Ishana was also a writer and director on Servant, the Apple TV+ series.
M. Night is a producer alongside Ashwin Rajan and Nimitt Mankad. Executive producers include Jo Homewood and Stephen Dembitzer.
The Watchers is in theaters on June 7, 2024.
