Director M. Night Shyamalan talks about ‘Trap’ trailer

M. Night Shyamalan presents the trailer for ‘Trap’

‘Trap’ writer and director M. Night Shyamalan attends the ‘Summer of Shyamalan’ event at Soho House on April 16, 2024 in West Hollywood, California. Photo by Eric Charbonneau/Getty Images for Warner Bros.

Before we screened the new trailer, the director explained the genesis of the project and its development with his daughter, Saleka Shyamalan.

So ‘Trap’ was this very interesting kind of genesis every time. I’m trying to do something, I think it’s a bit of a fusion of genres. So it’s just exciting for me. For 30 years I’ve been making films and that’s the idea. You have the comic that is different and unique. I know that sometimes the system doesn’t like that, that it is completely original, completely different. But I think more and more that’s becoming a distinctive beacon that stands out to the audience, and they’re so smart that they can sense it. In this case, my oldest daughter, Saleka, is an incredible classically trained musician, a pianist, and I was going to do that for her life and go to the conservatory. She then started writing and singing. She then began touring and signed with Columbia Records. We would follow her around the country and we would be backstage at Radio City Music Hall or wherever and we could see a little bit of that life. We started talking about the idea of ​​the concert-watching experience and the movie-watching experience as these kind of ultimate beautiful experiences that we do together. We started talking and I said, “What if we did one together?” This is going to seem crazy after you see the trailer, but we’re big fans of ‘Purple Rain.’ So I thought that it is a narrative structure, a diegetic one where the song is part of the story and merges these two worlds. It doesn’t happen very often, if ever, unlike that U2 song that plays in a montage or something. But the characters are experiencing that. So she and I started talking: “Hey, we should think of something because this is a house where you could write the album and we could make the movie.” Then one day the idea came to me and I was like, “Oh my God, I got the idea to do this, it takes place at a concert.” Then I thought a little, I didn’t know exactly the point of view of how to do it. Then one day I thought, “What would happen if I did it from that angle?” I told her and she was like, “Oh my God, let’s do this.” This is two years later and here is that experiment.

What does the trailer reveal about the plot of ‘Trap?’

Josh Hartnett in ‘Trap’. Photo: Warner Bros.

The trailer reveals that ‘Trap’ is about a father, played by Josh Hartnett, who takes his daughter to a famous pop singer’s stadium concert. The musician is played by Saleka Shyamalan and is clearly a Taylor Swift-level performer.

Hartnett’s character soon discovers that the entire concert is actually a trap set by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to capture a notorious serial killer. Shyamalan is best known for the surprising twists in his films, and ‘Trap’ is no exception, as the end of the trailer makes it seem like Hartnett is actually playing the trapped killer.

But we’ll have to wait and see what other twists and turns Shyamalan has in store for us when ‘Trap’ hits theaters on August 9.

M. Night Shyamalan explains ‘Trap’

‘Trap’ director M. Night Shyamalan at CinemaCon 2024. Photo: Warner Bros.

Moviefone had the opportunity to speak with M. Night Shyamalan after the screening to talk about his work on ‘Trap’.

Moviefone: Can you talk to us about how you came up with the concept for ‘Trap’ and what were the themes you wanted to explore with this film?

M. Night Shyamalan: The idea was how can we make diegetic music in a thriller that isn’t silly, that really conveys the circumstances and tone of the piece, and that is deeply tied to the characters. So that pattern of thinking, because of the stadiums and these concert halls that I’ve seen Saleka play in. I thought, “Wow, we should put it there. It could be a bigger version of one of my movies, like a house.” Many times I have characters trapped in a house. So this is a bigger version of that. So having that conversation and talking to Saleka about that character and, as a real character, why do they sing what they sing? What did these songs mean to your fans?

MF: At this point in your career, audiences expect a certain type of film from you as a director, something in the horror genre. But ‘Trap’ seems more like a suspense thriller. Can you talk about genre and subverting expectations with this film?

MNS: I love ‘Shadow of a Doubt’. I have that poster at home and it has a wicked tone. The guy who is so sweet and turns out to be not so sweet. The young woman who is his niece and all that, who bears her name / and all that. The humor of that movie. So, Hitchcock will always be the master. Somewhere deep in my childhood, DNA is built on these archetypes of the bad boy you love.

(L to R) Writer-director M. Night Shyamalan of ‘Trap’ and writer-director Ishana Shyamalan of ‘The Watchers’ attend the “Summer of Shyamalan” event at Soho House on April 16, 2024 in West Hollywood , California. Photo by Eric Charbonneau/Getty Images for Warner Bros.

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