Is Remain based on a Nicholas Sparks book? There is one — but it grew out of Shyamalan's film, and the endings may not match

The first Remain trailer landed Tuesday morning: Jake Gyllenhaal and Phoebe Dynevor as a couple whose meet-cute montage curdles into something else — she asks "Why can't we be together, Tate?", he whispers "I think you know," and then she vanishes in front of him. Within the hour, the top breakout searches on the title were not about the trailer at all. They were "remain book," "remain novel" and "nicholas sparks remain."

Fair question, and the answer is stranger than the usual yes. There is a book — Remain is Nicholas Sparks' 25th novel, out since October 14, 2025 — but the movie is not based on it. Both versions were built at the same time, on an idea that came from M. Night Shyamalan, and the two men have all but promised the endings may not match.

Every other Sparks movie started as a Sparks book. Remain is the first one where the author was adapting the director.

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How the double project actually worked

The mechanics, laid out by Sparks to Variety when the novel came out:

• Two pitches, one winner. Each man pitched the other a story mixing romance and horror; they went with Shyamalan's. Sparks' own pitch is banked for a possible round two.
• Parallel builds. Sparks wrote the novel while Shyamalan wrote the screenplay — the manuscript was finished in January 2024, and the film wrapped in summer 2025.
• The premise they share: New York architect Tate Donovan, fresh out of a psychiatric facility after his sister's death, arrives on Cape Cod to design a friend's summer home — and meets a woman named Wren at a historic bed-and-breakfast. His late sister's deathbed claim: she could see spirits, and the gift runs in the family.
• The endings are a decision, not an accident. Sparks says the book's last page contains "a little bit of a wink to Night and his past work" — and warns against assuming the film's twist is the same one.

Asked directly whether the two twists match, Sparks answered like a man who has sat through a Shyamalan third act:

"One of the questions I asked Night about is, do you want the ending to be the same? Do you want the twist to be the same? And we made a decision about that. You've gotta read the book and see the movie."

The Notebook connection nobody remembers

This is also a reunion that almost happened 25 years earlier. When The Notebook was being adapted, the studio approached a young screenwriter named M. Night Shyamalan — who passed because he was busy with a little project of his own. "He was busy writing this movie, 'The Sixth Sense,'" Sparks recalled. "I don't know if you've heard of that movie. I wonder how that eventually did?"

As for the film itself: it stars Gyllenhaal and Dynevor with Ashley Walters, Julie Hagerty, Jay O. Sanders and Maria Dizzia, and opens on Valentine's Day 2027 — moved from its original Halloween 2026 slot, which tells you which half of the romance-horror hybrid won the marketing argument. Shyamalan has called it the highest-testing film of his 16-picture career.

So no, you cannot spoil the movie by reading the book — or at least nobody can prove you did. Which may be the most Shyamalan marketing twist of all: the source material has a trick ending of its own.

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