During the Super Bowl, Universal Pictures dropped the first teaser trailer of M. Night Shyamalan’s Old, giving us a glimpse of the filmmaker’s latest twisted thriller.
It stars Gael García Bernal (Mozart in the Jungle), Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread), Rufus Sewell (The Man in the High Castle), Ken Leung (Star Wars: Episode VII—The Force Awakens), Nikki Amuka-Bird (Jupiter Ascending), Abbey Lee (Lovecraft Country), Aaron Pierre (Krypton), Alex Wolff (Hereditary), Embeth Davidtz (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Eliza Scanlen (Little Women), Emun Elliott (Star Wars: Episode VII—The Force Awakens), Kathleen Chalfant (The Affair) and Thomasin McKenzie (Jojo Rabbit).
Based on Frederik Peeters and Pierre Oscar Lévy’s 2010 graphic novel Sandcastle, Old is slated to release this July. Even though it’s an adaptation, it looks like a classic Shyamalan thriller.
The book, Sandcastle, features overt existentialist themes, tackling the inevitability of death by following a group of people on a beach who find themselves trapped in a time warp that sucks the life out of them, with each coming to terms with their fate in their own way. Shyamalan and Universal Pictures first announced the adaptation as a mystery project back in October 2019.
Reviews for the original graphic novel compared it to a murder mystery, an episode of the infamous series The Twilight Zone, and a movie by international award winner, Lars von Trier movie which is quite the combination of elements present in Sandcastle.
The film announced its cast in May 2020 before beginning production in September, at which point the official title was revealed. The official synopsis reads:
“This summer, visionary filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan unveils a chilling, mysterious new thriller about a family on a tropical holiday who discover that the secluded beach where they are relaxing for a few hours is somehow causing them to age rapidly … reducing their entire lives into a single day.”
The movie is a Blinding Edge Pictures production and is also produced by Ashwin Rajan (Glass, AppleTV+’s Servant) and Marc Bienstock (Glass, Split). The film’s executive producer is Steven Schneider.
Old is scheduled for 23 July 2021 theatrical release.