Writer/director M. Night Shyamalan is far from a stranger to the world of superheroes. In fact, his Eastrail 177 trilogy -- which is composed of the films Unbreakable (2000), Split (2017) and Glass (2019) -- is a self-reflexive deconstruction of superhero comic books and their tropes. However, for his upcoming movie Old, Shyamalan decided to re-imagine a very different type of comic book story in the form of Pierre Oscar Lévy and Frederik Peeters' 2010 graphic novel Sandcastle.
Shyamalan began production on Old in the Dominican Republic in September 2020, marking his first time shooting a movie completely outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he and his family live. The general public got their first look at Old during Super Bowl LV, in the form of a short promo unveiled ahead of the film's scheduled arrival in theaters this summer. Until then, here's what you need to know about the plot, release date and trailer for Old.
What Old Is About
Old follows a family on what's meant to be a relaxing trip to a secluded tropical beach. Once there, however, they discover the place somehow makes people age rapidly, "reducing their entire lives into a single day." The trailer for the film suggests this affects all the beachgoers in similar ways, causing the family's children to suddenly grow into young adults and their parents to gradually begin withering away. On top of being an existential nightmare, the aging process in Old appears to be extremely painful, with people's bodies changing shape or deteriorating in bizarre and horrifying ways.
How Old Differs From Sandcastle
Much like Old, Lévy and Peeters' Sandcastle revolves around a small group of people at a "secluded, idyllic cove" who begin to rapidly grow older. The characters age every half-hour in the graphic novel, which also looks to be more or less the case in Shymalan's film. What's more, Sandcastle plays out as a Twilight Zone-style mystery/thriller for a good chunk of its narrative, in the same ways Shymalan movies like The Village and The Visit do. However, unlike Sandcastle, those films include a big third-act twist that reframes the rest of the story.
As such, the big question is whether Old will also feature one of Shyamalan's trademark plot twists or follow Sandcastle's lead by serving up more of a darkly existential ending. Intriguingly, as Peeters revealed in 2013, Sandcastle almost included a final twist before he and Lévy "decided it was useless, and would have destroyed the frightening dimension of the book." Shyamalan, for his part, has avoided ending his movies with a twist before, The Happening being one example. Still, he may have a trick up his sleeve with Old, if only as a way to surprise those who've read Sandcastle and think they know what to expect.
Old's Cast & Release Date
The Old cast is full of actors who've never worked with Shyamalan before, like Gael García Bernal (Mozart in the Jungle), Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread), Alex Wolff (Hereditary), Thomasin McKenzie (Jojo Rabbit), Eliza Scanlen (Little Women) and Abbey Lee (Lovecraft Country). Other cast members include Rufus Sewell (The Man in the High Castle), Nikki Amuka-Bird (Jupiter Ascending), Ken Leung (Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Embeth Davidtz (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Aaron Pierre (Krypton), Emun Elliott (Guilt) and Kathleen Chalfant (The Affair).
Old was initially scheduled to open theatrically on Feb. 26, but was later delayed to July 23 due to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The film is being distributed by Universal, which worked out a deal with theater chains like AMC in 2020 to move their films to VOD 17 days after their theatrical premiere, should they decide to do so. Coupled with the fact Old wasn't too costly to make, Shyamalan's movie is expected to stick to its current date, regardless of whether the box office has returned to pre-pandemic levels by then or not.
Old's Trailer
The Old trailer lays out the basic premise for the film but avoids revealing too much beyond that. It also confirms Wolff is playing the rapidly aged version of Bernal and Krieps' young son and hints at the possibility of a deeper mystery that wasn't present in the Sandcastle graphic novel, with one character claiming they "were chosen for a reason" to visit the movie's sinister setting.
Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Old stars Gael García Bernal, Eliza Scanlen, Thomasin McKenzie, Aaron Pierre, Alex Wolff, Vicky Krieps, Abbey Lee, Embeth Davidtz, Rufus Sewell, Ken Leung, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Emun Elliott and Nolan River. The film is scheduled for release on July 23.