Years in the Making: A Guest Post by Nicholas Sparks and M. Night Shyamalan
Tate doesn’t believe in the old family myth that a chosen few can see spirits trapped in the realm of the living — until something rattles his world for good. Read on for an exclusive essay from Nicholas Sparks and M. Night Shyamalan on writing Remain.
Hardcover
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Remain: A Supernatural Love Story
Remain: A Supernatural Love Story
By Nicholas Sparks , M. Night Shyamalan
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Hardcover
$21.00
$30.00
A one-of-a-kind novel that grapples with the supernatural mysteries of life, death, and human connection—an unprecedented collaboration between the globally bestselling author of love stories like The Notebook and the renowned writer and director of blockbuster thrillers like The Sixth Sense
A one-of-a-kind novel that grapples with the supernatural mysteries of life, death, and human connection—an unprecedented collaboration between the globally bestselling author of love stories like The Notebook and the renowned writer and director of blockbuster thrillers like The Sixth Sense
Nicholas: The story of how our collaboration came about is unusual and interesting, many years in the making.
Night: Many more years than you may realize because while we didn’t physically meet then, when I was 25, I was asked to adapt The Notebook.
Nicholas: You’re right, I didn’t realize that!
Night: Yes, I read the book – I don’t know if it was even out yet – and I really loved it. But when they asked me to adapt it, I was already writing The Sixth Sense at the time, and I ended up selling that and not doing the adaptation. Cut to 20 years later, and I get this call saying “Hey, what would you think about doing something with Nicholas Sparks?”
Nicholas: Right, we know a few people in common, one of whom told me for years that we should work together. Apparently, you heard the same thing! Like most great ideas, nothing happened for a long time … until it did. When we finally met in person, a couple of years ago, I think, we decided that I was going to come up with an original idea for both a film and a novel, and that you would do the same, and then we would get together and pitch each other the ideas. Once we met, we both knew right away that we were going to use your idea. Then we spent the next few hours going over some of the details of the story that ended up in REMAIN.
Night: I was on a plane and thinking of an idea and came up with a four-line version of what I eventually pitched to you. Originally, I thought I would be a producer, where we would nurture this idea into a movie for someone else to direct. But when we talked, at some point in this process, I was in an emotional place where I needed a love story. I needed to say something pure and authentic, from the heart, and so I decided that I wanted to direct the film.
Nicholas: Right, then you went to work on the script. And as soon as I read it, I said ‘This is amazing, I love this, but it’s not going to work exactly as a book, I’m going to have to make some changes.’ And I went to write the book.
One of the best things about working with Night on this project was how well we worked together. He’s so talented at making a script, making the movie, which I know nothing about, and he was really kind in telling me, ‘okay, you do the book thing.’
What really resonated with me on our very first meeting was our absolute agreement on the theme of the novel: that love is the only thing that can save you. Both the novel and the film really explore that theme, and I can’t wait for everyone to read the novel and go see the film.
