James McAvoy to Join Shyamalan’s Next Thriller

james-mcavoy-featureJoaquin Phoenix is out, but James McAvoy is in. It still is a good news, although, having Phoenix in a Shyamalan film once again would be a treat for us all. McAvoy is a good actor and working under Shyamalan’s hands, I’m sure we’ll get to see a side of his we have not yet seen.

As reported earlier, Phoenix was in talks to sign the dotted line to work with Shyamalan for the third time. Previously the two worked on Signs and The Village. But, unfortunately the deal could not be made for him to join the Shyamalan camp this time. This could be due to the paycheck, which possibly consisted of numbers less enticing to the actor considering the budget of the project, which is $5 million. Shyamalan, for now, is going to mainly focus on small budget thrillers, financed from his bank account rather than having the studio money, but not complete artistic freedom to finish the work.

What his new project is about, for now it’s locked in a secret box that only Shyamalan has access to. But it’s not like the man is not sharing updates with his fans. He’s been for the past two months busy story boarding the script as he’s ready to roll the cameras early next month. According to the reports, though, this one will likely include elements of the supernatural.

After the success of The Visit the Blum House is going to be on board again to help Shyamalan produce the film along with Marc Bienstock this time. Executive producers are going to be Ashwin Rajan and Steven Scheider. As of yet the project is untitled, but we know that it’s going to be set in Philadelphia, Shyamalan’s hometown.

This news was first reported by Hollywood Reporter.