Knock at the Cabin: Dave Bautista contacted M. Night Shyamalan with a fan letter asking for a collaboration

Last Updated on February 8, 2023

We’re right at the cusp of armageddon, that is, unless Dave Bautista‘s character gets his job done. Knock at the Cabin, the new suspense-filled thriller from twisty director, M. Night Shyamalan, will be unveiled to audiences this week. The film features a hulking, intimidating character in the form of Guardians of the Galaxy‘s Dave Bautista. And as overwhelming as he looks, his character is portrayed as soft-spoken and even polite. GeekTyrant reports that the wrestler-turned-actor had put himself on Shyamalan’s radar with a fan letter that he emailed to the director.

The Sixth Sense director said he was already taken by Bautista’s performance in Blade Runner 2049, but knew he would like to work with him after he received an email of the big guy saying how big a fan he was and wanted to collaborate. Shyamalan replied to Bautista’s outreach, saying, “I said, ‘You know what, I’d love to meet you. Let’s talk.’ And I was like, God, this guy is exactly the lead character. I mean, he is Leonard. He’s amazing. And it’s Dave, at this moment in his life, in his fifties, that makes him perfect for this. So you add Dave with these people, and Rupert on top of it […] and then Nikki and Abby as well. This particular cast was the director’s dream — having talent that is in the right headspace and ready to be vulnerable.”

The Drax actor has had nothing but good things said about him from his co-stars. Ben Aldridge, who stars in Knock at the Cabin also would glow about Bautista, expounding, “I think we shot a week and a half without Dave. […] He came directly from ‘Guardians.’ I think he had, like, one day off or something. We’d been in the cabin for a bit and then this energy of Leonard came in. Suddenly you had this Hollywood mega-action hero walking into this domestic setting and playing this very complex, tortured, gentle character. It was disarming to have him there.”

This summer, you can see Bautista in the conclusion to the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy with Vol. 3 on May 5, but before then, you can be creeped out by him in Knock at the Cabin this Friday.