In Ishana Night Shyamalan's debut horror film, The Watchers (UK title The Watched), Dakota Fanning ( , Ripley) plays protagonist Mina. Left stranded in an Irish forest with no power, she comes across a strange cabin where the inhabitants are observed each night by mysterious creatures. , Shyamalan also wrote the screenplay for the movie.
It turns out that Fanning's role in The Watchers has fulfilled a childhood dream, as producer M. Night Shyamalan revealed when we sat down to talk to him about the film. "I met her when she was a child," he recalls.
"She came up to me at an event – I think she was probably 11, maybe even younger – and she was like 'Mr Shyamalan, I like your movies. I would love to be in one of your movies." While Fanning hasn't featured in an M.
Night Shyamalan film, the director expresses that her starring in his daughter's film is a lovely full circle moment. "To think about how the universe played out, and that she was in a movie, but my daughter's movie, is so beautiful." Fanning adds that she was glad to get to work with both the elder and younger Shyamalans on The Watchers.
"I had met Night once before when I was younger, but got to know him much better while making the film," she says. "I'm such a fan of his, and his films. I think there should be a whole genre that's Shyamalan!" "It's such a creative family," the actor continues.
"I think they've fostered Ishana's distinctive artistry. She had so much to bring to this project in adapting it and di.
