Last December, it was confirmed that Army of the Dead star Dave Bautista will be the lead for M. Night Shyamalan’s next horror thriller titled Knock at the Cabin. Now, in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Shyamalan has opened up about Bautista’s casting, which serves as their first collaboration together. He confirmed that his decision to bring the former WWE superstar into the project was mainly influenced by Bautista’s performance in Blade Runner 2049, describing his stillness in the scene as powerful.
“I was really taken by what Denis [Villeneuve] and Dave did in that scene in Blade Runner,” Shyamalan said. “He was still in a way that was powerful. There’s a type of stillness where you’re not doing nothing; you’re doing everything and you’re still. Your essence of what you’re thinking is coming off your body.”
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He also explained how Bautista’s scene in Denis Villeneuve’s 2017 sequel reminded him of Heath Ledger’s opening scene in The Dark Knight in terms of how actors’ bodies react while filming scenes.
“I always tell actors that I can definitely shoot the back of you,” he said. “If you watch the back of Heath Ledger at the beginning of The Dark Knight, the second I saw his back, I thought, ‘I’m seeing one of the greatest performances ever.’ I could see it just from the way he was standing. Every cell in your body will do what it’s supposed to do if you’re thinking something correctly. So don’t just be blank. You have to think it. So don’t show me anything because your body is going to show me.”
While continuing to praise Bautista’s Blade Runner 2049 performance, Shyamalan also went on to tease his upcoming project’s main character, describing him as a “giant human being.” He also revealed that the project’s “very emotional” script was the fastest one he has ever written since 2002’s Signs.
“And Dave was embodying all of this philosophy in that scene, and I thought he was a really unusual person because he is who he is and he’s that big,” Shyamalan continued. “I didn’t know who he was at that time, and he stuck in my head. So when this script came, I was like, ‘There seems to be one guy who can play this giant human being and do the stillness.’ So I asked Dave.”
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Set to arrive in theaters on February 3, 2023, Knock at the Cabin will be written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. The new project will be produced by Shyamalan and Ashwin Rajan through their Blinding Edge Pictures banner along with Marc Bienstock, and Steven Schneider.
The project marks the latest collaboration between the Oscar-nominated filmmaker and the studio, who have previously worked on Glass, Split, and The Visit. Shyamalan’s high-concept content has consistently captured the attention of audiences around the world for nearly two decades, having amassed more than $3.3 billion worldwide. However, not all of his films had received positive feedback as some of his works earned negative reviews from critics and audiences alike including 2006’s Lady in the Water, 2013’s The Happening, 2010’s The Last Airbender, and 2013’s After Earth.
