Jake Gyllenhaal in the random collaboration

Jake Gyllenhaal was photographed in Bristol, Rhode Island yesterday on the set of M Night Shyamalan’s new film Remain. 

More on this in a moment, but first let’s talk about Jake because he’s just been nominated for his first Emmy for his performance in Presumed Innocent. I’d been tracking this since last year when he was doing some light campaigning during the last award season for the Golden Globes and the SAGs. Presumed Innocent was released after the Emmys deadline in 2024 which makes it still eligible for this year and, clearly, the television academy remembered it because Jake is indeed among the five contenders for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or TV Movie. His is not, however, a favourite. That category, probably, will come down to Colin Farrell in The Penguin or Stephen Graham in Adolescence. 

Speaking of Adolescence though, Jake is co-starring in this movie with Ashley Walters who is also a first-time Emmy nominee for his performance as Detective Bascombe in the series. Two Emmy nominees then are part of the cast of Remain. So what is Remain? 

It’s the most random collaboration between Shyamalan and… Nicholas Sparks, WTF? They came up with the idea together and the book will be released in October, followed by the film next year. Nicholas posted the synopsis back in March: 

Jake is playing the “New York architect”, Tate Donovan… which… is this the only name Nicholas Sparks could come up with when there’s an actual real life, famous Tate Donovan?! The name doesn’t annoy me as much as this sentence: 

“While staying at a historic bed-and-breakfast, Tate Donovan meets a beautiful young woman whose presence challenges his logical worldview.”

There she is, the “beautiful young woman” (emphasis mine) with dark secrets. Women past 35, evidently, don’t have secrets and aren’t very mysterious, OK. Btw, she’ll be played by Phoebe Dynevor. 

Was Shyamalan + Sparks ever on my bingo card? No. Does it make sense? Actually…yes. Both are known for super cheese in their respective genres, thriller and sad romance. Both are known for stories with absurd plotlines and silly dialogue that becomes unintentionally funny. Like Nicholas Sparks walked so Colleen Hoover could run. This partnership totally tracks. And the talent does too. Because Jake Gyllenhaal is Donnie Darko but he’s also Road House and Michael Bay movies. I can’t f-cking wait to see what he does with this material.