Months after his cerebral superhero thriller Glass broke through to massive box office numbers, M. Night Shyamalan has inked a deal to write and direct two new movies for Universal Pictures.
The films, both untitled, will open Feb. 26, 2021 and Feb. 17, 2023, nestling Shyamalan firmly into the same early-year release schedule where he found considerable success with both Glass and its predecessor Split three years ago.
“M. Night Shyamalan continues to create exciting, highly original stories that keep global audiences on the edge of their seats,” Universal Pictures President Peter Cramer said in a statement. “There is no one like him: he is a master filmmaker working at the height of his powers, and we are honored that he has once again chosen Universal to be the home for his next two incredible projects.”
Shyamalan, once the toast of Hollywood after breaking out with The Sixth Sense 20 years ago, struggled through a string of critical flops during the mid-to-late ’00s. Films like The Village, Lady in the Water, The Happening, and The Last Airbender failed to match the acclaim of earlier efforts like Unbreakable and Signs, and his pricey 2013 sci-fi thriller After Earth added insult to injury by also underperforming commercially, despite the presence of star Will Smith.
But aligning himself with Universal turned out to be the right move for Shyamalan, who bet big on his own storytelling instincts by crafting three original stories in the thriller genre, all for a combined production budget of $35 million. Split across three films, that’s a negligible figure for a studio as big as Universal (it spent $41 million just on the three stars of Hobbs & Shaw, paying Dwayne Johnson alone $20 million), and it turned out to be a wise investment.
Found-footage chiller The Visit (2015), made for just $5 million, paired unknown actors with one of Shyamalan’s signature twists, to the tune of a super-profitable $98.5 million. And the director cemented his comeback with 2017’s Split, which acted as a showcase for actor James McAvoy and turned into a stunningly profitable box-office hit, grossing $278.5 million against a $9 million budget.
The film was Shyamalan’s first sequel (to 2000’s Unbreakable) but wasn’t revealed as such until its post-credits scene, which led directly into this year’s Glass. With heightened expectations (and a pumped-up $20 million budget that allowed for stars like Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson to return from Unbreakable), Glass made less than Split but still collected a super sum at the box office, topping out at $247 million and—in the eyes of many—restoring Shyamalan’s title as an in-demand Hollywood hitmaker. (Admittedly, the critics were, how do you say, split.)
In total, Shyamalan’s movies have grossed more than $3.3 billion worldwide. And crucially, his biggest films of late have collected huge sums despite costing next to nothing. Hewing closely to the spendthrift Blumhouse model of horror filmmaking since working with the studio on The Visit, Shyamalan was outgrossed this year by only one other filmmaker working on a $20 million budget: Jordan Peele. That filmmaker’s vision-driven horror Us made $255.1 million, on par with his breakout Oscar winner Get Out (made for an even cheaper $4.5 million and capped at $255.4 million).
Before Shyamalan sees either of his two Universal projects hit screens, his TV gambit Servant, a 10-episode, five-hour psychological thriller, will debut on Apple TV+. He directed the pilot and one other episode, also executive-producing the whole series.
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