M. Night Shyamalan Walked Away From Directing a ‘Harry Potter’ Film

It’s easy to make fun of the lowlights of M. Night Shyamalan’s filmography, but his best movies are excellent genre thrillers that remain entertaining even after you know the twist. The director’s biggest hits were original ideas. But he nearly got behind the camera for an installment of a beloved franchise. In an interview promoting Shyamalan’s latest work Knock at the Cabin, Rupert Grint revealed that the filmmaker was in talks to direct one of the Harry Potter movies.

Few directors have soared as high and stooped as low as M. Night Shyamalan

m night shymalan harry potter — (L-R): Rupert Grint and M. Night Shyamalan attend the “Knock at the Cabin” UK Special Screening at Vue West End on January 25, 2023 in London, England. | Dave J Hogan/Getty Images

The Sixth Sense signaled Shyamalan’s arrival as a new cinematic talent. The movie left a huge impact on the culture. And the filmmaker was recognized as a young star with Oscar nominations for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. He followed that up with Unbreakable and Signs, two films written and directed by Shyamalan that became global blockbusters.

Right at the point when he looked like a generational filmmaker, Shyamalan’s work went completely off the rails. He spent the next decade of his career making movies — The Village (2004), Lady in the Water (2006), The Happening (2008), The Last Airbender (2010), and After Earth (2013) — that are either remembered as total failures or so mediocre that there simply forgotten by most people.

A cold streak that frigid didn’t leave much room for optimism about Shyamalan. But he managed to rediscover his touch without giving up on his own sensibility. The Visit and Split showed that he was still capable of making good movies, and while Glass and Old didn’t quite reach those standards, Shyamalan had re-established himself as an artist worth paying attention to.

M. Night Shyamalan was in talks to direct ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’

In an interview for British GQ, someone asked if Grint was Shyamalan’s muse, given the number of times they’ve worked together, on Knock at the Cabin and the Apple TV+ series Servant. The actor brushed that off with a joke, then added, “It’s just a dream to work with him. He’s great.” Then he confirmed Shyamlan “nearly did [Harry] Potter 3, so I did meet him when I was a kid.”

That third movie was Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Chris Columbus, the director of the first two Harry Potter movies, declined to make another. Numerous directors were considered before Alfonso Cuarón stepped on board. He famously gave Grint and his castmates a homework assignment, which Grint didn’t end up doing.

“It was kind of a big change, when Alfonso came,” he said in the GQ interview. “Everything kind of felt like we should be taking it more seriously.” Given Prisoner of Azkaban is a favorite film of many Harry Potter fans, it looks like it worked all worked out.

‘Knock at the Cabin’ is another good M. Night Shyamalan movie

Like Old, Knock at the Cabin is based on a pre-existing work, in this case, the novel The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay.

The movie begins with married couple Andrew (Ben Aldridge) and Eric (Jonathan Groff) taking their daughter Wen (Kristen Cui) to a scenic cabin in the woods for a vacation. Their good time is interrupted when a man named Leonard and his cohorts (Nikki Amuka-Bird), Adriane (Abby Quinn), and Redmond (Grint) show up and hold the family hostage inside the cabin.

The strangers are convinced that there is a global apocalypse on the horizon and the only way to percent it is for this family to sacrifice one of their own immediately to save humanity. It’s a provocative premise that Shyamalan mostly makes good on, according to reviews. Knock at the Cabin is also doing well at the box office. It made $14.2 million on its opening weekend.