Jake Gyllenhaal is teaming up with M. Night Shyamalan for the director's upcoming film, which is being developed alongside a new romance novel by Nicholas Sparks. The project is a unique collaboration between Sparks and Shyamalan, with Sparks penning the novel and Shyamalan crafting a screenplay, both based on the same original story but created independently.

This film represents Shyamalan's second venture into adapting literature for the screen, following his transformation of Paul Tremblay’s horror novel 'The Cabin at the End of the World' into the 2023 film 'Knock at the Cabin.' It's unclear if this new endeavor with Sparks will be considered an adaptation, as both the book and screenplay are being written simultaneously but separately.

The production is being handled by Shyamalan and Ashwin Rajan under their Blinding Edge Pictures banner, alongside Sparks’ frequent collaborators Theresa Park and Marc Bienstock. Sparks is also involved as an executive producer.

While no studio has yet been confirmed for the film, Warner Bros. was the distributor for Shyamalan’s previous film, the black comedy thriller 'Trap,' which was released last August and grossed $82 million worldwide. Before 'Trap,' Shyamalan had worked extensively with Universal for over ten years.

Gyllenhaal recently starred in Amazon MGM’s reboot of 'Road House,' a film that reportedly set new streaming records for Prime Video on its release. He also featured in Apple TV+’s well-received crime series 'Presumed Innocent.' Up next for Gyllenhaal are roles in Guy Ritchie’s thriller 'In the Grey' and 'The Bride!,' a monster movie directed by his sister, Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Nicholas Sparks is a best-selling author whose books have sold over 130 million copies worldwide. His novels have been the basis for several successful film adaptations, including 'The Notebook' and 'Dear John.'

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