Romantic master Nicholas Sparks teams up with filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan for the supernatural love story “Stay.” (Justin Jun Lee/The Times)
On the surface, writer Nicholas Sparks and filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan seem like unlikely collaborators. Sparks is a master of “realistic” love stories like “The Notebook,” while Shyamalan, the Oscar-nominated director for “The Sixth Sense,” is known for his fascination with the supernatural. It turns out they have admired each other's work for years and have now co-produced Remain, which hits shelves next week and hits cinemas next October.
Sparks is known for tugging at the heartstrings of readers with his cinematic love stories, 11 of which have been adapted for the big screen, several of which Sparks produced himself. But with “Stay,” the best-selling author has forged a unique partnership that takes him far beyond his comfort zone. One is a romantic story between a living man and a ghostly woman. Lovers have an otherworldly sex, even though they can't actually touch. In other words, it's a love story that only this pair could make up.
Sparks said someone on his team approached him with an idea in early 2023. “Hey,” Sparks recalled, “wouldn’t it be nice if you could do something with Mr. Night Shyamalan?” Sparks, who has been a Shyamalan follower for decades, told The Times in a Zoom interview from his home in New Bern, North Carolina. Of course, he loves The Sixth Sense. “Who hasn't, right?” he laughed. But he's also been a fan of every Shyamalan film ever since. There was even a close call between them decades ago. “Back in the late 1990s, when The Notebook was being adapted into a movie, one of the filmmakers the producers approached was M. Night. He turned it down because he was working on another project.” Sparks paused, then smiled slyly, “I think it was called 'The Sixth Sense.'”
At this stage of his highly successful career—his books have sold more than 115 million copies worldwide—Sparks has his pick of projects. Now a Hollywood veteran, too, he knows that transitioning from concept to screen can be challenging—despite Sparks' stellar track record. So while Sparks was open to working with Shyamalan, he was skeptical that the collaboration could progress. To Sparks' surprise, a month or two after the idea was first floated, he received a call asking to arrange a meeting between the two for the next month, in May 2023, at Shyamalan's office in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. They agreed that each would come up with their own storyline and then decide together which storyline to continue. The game begins.
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It quickly became clear that Shyamalan's concept would win, although Sparks wouldn't reveal why, other than “my concept is very dark.” Once Shyamalan described his vision as a “supernatural love story,” Sparks thought, “I can do that. That's not outside the scope of what I do. Something Lovecraftian with a different dimension.” The more Sparks thought about it, the more he realized that “novel ultimately comes down to character, writing, and plot.” All of these are in his toolbox. They worked through what Sparks describes as “the crush thing,” and then took a closer look at how they could work together. “It depends on the chemistry,” Sparks said.
The two spent the next few hours honing the central idea and debating plot and character development. It was ultimately decided that lead actor Tate Donovan (played by Jake Gyllenhaal in the film) would be an architect grieving the loss of his sister. She told him on her deathbed that she could see souls “still bound to the living world.” Both the novel and the movie are set in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and there will be a mysterious woman named Wren, which is where the supernatural element comes in. They reached loose agreement on an outline but no firm agreement or timeline. Sparks returned to his home in New Bern. More than a year passed, during which time, Sparks said, “I didn't hear from him at all. I thought, 'Well, he's busy. I'm busy. Whatever'” before moving on to another project.
M. Night Shyamalan wrote the screenplay for the film “Remain,” starring Jake Gyllenhaal, and Nicholas Sparks wrote the book. (Gerald Matska/Getty Images)
In August 2024, Sparks was surprised to receive a call from Shyamalan, who was already moving forward with the idea. “Our Story was going to be my next project,” Sparks recalled Shyamalan saying. “He told me he was going to write, direct and produce this movie,” Sparks said, and he was like, “Oh my God. This is going to be an M. Night movie!” The mood turned from excitement to reality: “I guess I'd better start writing a novel!” Sparks recalls saying.
After that call, Shyamalan completed a first draft of the script in just six weeks and sent it to Sparks for comment. Normally, the book is written first, followed by the screenplay, but for Message in a Bottle, Sparks completed the novel after Gerald DiPage finished the screenplay, with Kevin Costner attached. Sparks knew what to do. He immediately realized, “Wow, this would be a great movie,” but in order to become a novel, he told Shyamalan, “We're going to have to tweak some things.” By October, they had smoothed out the rough edges, and Sparks began writing in earnest.
Sparks' career was as fairy tale-like as the romances he wrote. It was his mother who first suggested he write a book to “stop him from pouting” after he missed the Notre Dame track team due to injury. Sparks said the first novel he wrote was “really terrible” and was never published. But the seeds have been planted. Years later, after marrying, having children, and working as a pharmaceutical sales representative, he recalled his mother's advice and spent several evenings writing a novel he titled “A Winter for Two.”
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He sent the completed manuscript to 25 literary agents. Only one person — Teresa Parker — responded. She was enthusiastic but urged him to rename it “The Notebook.” At Park's request, he printed about 20 hard copies and mailed them to the publisher. One of them fell into the hands of Jamie Raab, then the executive editor of Warner Books in New York. Rab immediately saw its potential and rushed to her boss's apartment, asking her to drop everything and read it as soon as possible. Raab's boss was sold and instructed her to “take the novel off the table” with a pre-emptive deal to prevent other publishers from bidding. “I knew it was filled with love. It made me cry…I had a gut feeling that a lot of people would feel the same way,” Raab recalled. In 1996, “The Notebook” topped the bestseller list; in 2004, the film starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams was a box office hit; in 2024, it was adapted into a play and was nominated for three Tony Awards. Raab eventually edited 18 more Sparks books.
Sparks said he and the Shyamalan team worked well together. “He gave me a lot of freedom to write a novel based on a story that the two of us came up with,” Sparks said. “I would call him and say, ‘Can I have the ending be different?’ or ‘How about another way? “During this time, they spoke three to four times a week. Sparks said they “had a great time bouncing ideas off each other.” “The only tricky part is that I can't make all the decisions about the novel on my own like I normally would.” “Night has to choose the rules, and I have to write within those rules. His story dictates what I need to do, but it's still up to me to decide how to do it.” Sparks said the team worked together to make “a great movie” that opens in theaters on October 23, 2026, and he has also published a book that he hopes will surprise and delight readers.
For those who were shocked that Sparks strayed from the well-worn path of the traditional love story, the first book that his mother pushed him to write but never saw the light of day? This is a horror novel inspired by Sparks' literary hero Stephen King. Who knows where Sparks will venture next.
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.