A few months ago, Warner Bros. decided to delay Remain, which was initially supposed to be released in October 2026. A Valentine’s Day 2027 corridor now awaits “Remain,” as the studio has dated M. Night Shyamalan’s latest—based on a story he concocted with Nicholas Sparks—for a February 5, 2027, release.
Shyamalan is now clearing the air. He’s implying the delay is due to the commercial potential of “Remain.” The writer-director took the stage at Warner Bros. Discovery’s upfront presentation to advertisers in New York on Wednesday and even went a step further, proclaiming it the highest-tested film of his career.
Just between us, it’s my highest-testing movie of my career. We’re now in post-production, finding every detail. Honestly, my hope is that when you experience ‘Remain,’ you feel both sides of it at once — full of love and that quiet, lingering unease that doesn’t let you go.
That’s fairly impressive, if true, considering M. Night Shyamalan’s track record includes major box-office hits like “The Sixth Sense” and “Signs.” Then again, strong test-screening reactions don’t always translate to mainstream success—their reliability has been inconsistent over the years.
The delay could turn out to be a smart move for Warner Bros.—we’ll see—as this same Valentine’s Day slot turned Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” into a highly profitable hit for the studio.
With “Remain,” Shyamalan is teaming up with Sparks, the sultan of sentimental tearjerkers, for a film and novel. Sparks wrote the book, which dropped last fall, while Shyamalan was simultaneously whipping up the screenplay.
The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Phoebe Dynevor. No official plot details were revealed in today’s announcement, but if Shyamalan is faithful to the book, this will, in all likelihood, be the synopsis:
“Remain” follows Tate Donovan, a New York architect trying to rebuild his life after a psychiatric stay triggered by his sister’s death. Seeking a fresh start, he heads to Cape Cod to design a summer home for his best friend. But things don’t go as planned—especially after he meets Wren, a mysterious young woman who upends his orderly, logic-driven world.
Shyamalan, who is coming off 2024’s “Trap,” will be working with a new DP on this one, as Adolpho Veloso—who shot the acclaimed Train Dreams—is billed as the cinematographer.
“Trap” grossed $83M against a production budget of $30M. It helps that the filmmaker self-finances every film he makes, which is likely the case with “Remain”; Warner Bros. is on board solely as the distributor.