Even by M. Night Shyamalan’s own particular standards, the director’s latest creative venture is a little unusual.
Unusual not because of its unorthodox story or experimental style, but in the sense that Shyamalan is about to execute a film trilogy 20 years in the making. That’s right, following up on Unbreakable and this year’s rather excellent Split, which had James McAvoy nursing a relentless case of dissociative identity disorder, the esteemed filmmaker plans to get the gang back together – and we do mean the whole gang – for Glass, the 2019 horror-thriller that has today found its new recruit: Sarah Paulson.
Best known for her ongoing, Emmy-winning work on FX’s chilling anthology series, American Horror Story, Paulson has landed an undisclosed role in the feature film, and will now star opposite Anya Taylor-Joy (New Mutants), Bruce Willis, and Samuel L. Jackson (Captain Marvel). Further details on her casting were not disclosed at this time, but you’ll be able to find the official confirmation from Shyamalan’s Twitter feed down below.
Incredibly fortunate to round out our iconic cast of actors on #Glass… @MsSarahPaulson will be joining us. #powerhouse
— M. Night Shyamalan (@MNightShyamalan) July 24, 2017
It’s the latest in a long string of status reports from the filmmaker, who appears to be rustling up a suitably dark conclusion to his long-brewing trilogy. There’s also mention of a “more traditional” budget when it comes to Glass, after Shyamalan engineered Split on a shoestring budget of just $9 million. That extra pool of resources will no doubt lend the VFX team more creative freedom when it comes to rendering the threequel’s fantastical effects, so it’ll be interesting to see how M. Night Shyamalan’s latest (and greatest?) improves on its predecessor.
Split is expected to haunt theaters on January 18th, 2019. Other projects in the mix with Paulson’s name on the masthead include the Ocean’s Eight spinoff at Warner Bros. and The Papers, Steven Spielberg’s button-pressing drama starring two bona fide acting heavyweights in Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep.
