Dakota Fanning to Star in Supernatural Movie "The Watchers"

American actress Dakota Fanning has closed a deal to lead the buzzy supernatural thriller "The Watchers".

The project is set up at New Line Cinema following a multi-studio bidding war. It is based on the 2021 gothic horror novel by A.M. Shine and marks the feature debut of writer-director Ishana Night Shyamalan.

"The Watchers" tells the story of Mina (Fanning), a 28-year-old artist who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers that are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.

M. Night Shyamalan and Ashwin Rajan will produce through Blinding Edge Pictures, alongside Nimitt Mankad for Inimitable Pictures, with Jo Homewood and Stephen Dembitzer exec producing.

The movie is expected to enter production this summer and debut in theaters on June 7.

Fanning was at CinemaCon earlier this week to tout Sony’s threequel "The Equalizer 3", which reunites her on screen with Denzel Washington for the first time since 2004’s "Man on Fire".

The Critics’ Choice Award winner and SAG Award nominee also recently landed a role alongside Nicole Kidman and Liev Schreiber in Netflix’s limited series "The Perfect Couple".

The series is directed by Susanne Bier and is based on the Elin Hilderbrand bestseller.

Fanning will next year star with Andrew Scott in Steve Zaillian’s Netflix limited series, "Ripley", adapted from Patricia Highsmith’s bestselling quintet of Tom Ripley novels.