Sandcastle

The inspiration for Old, a Blinding Edge Pictures production, directed and produced by two-time Oscar nominee M. Night Shyamalan, from his screenplay based on the graphic novel Sandcastle by Pierre Oscar Lévy and Frederik Peeters. It’s a perfect beach day, or so thought the family, young couple, a few tourists, and a refugee who all end up in the same secluded, idyllic cove filled with rock pools and sandy shore, encircled by green, densely vegetated cliffs. But this utopia hides a dark secret. First there is the dead body of a woman found floating in the crystal-clear water. Then there is the odd fact that all the children are aging rapidly. Soon everybody is growing older—every half hour—and there doesn’t seem to be any way out of the cove. Levy’s dramatic storytelling works seamlessly with Peeters’s sinister art to create a profoundly disturbing and fantastical mystery. Praise for Sandcastle: “Sandcastle truly inspired my film Old. It is a profound mystery sci-fi graphic novel that is illustrated so beautifully and with such humanity. Its theme of ageing had me thinking about my parents and children, and how quickly it all goes by. From the moment I read this, I was changed.” – M. Night Shyamalan “Begins like a murder mystery, continues like an episode of The Twilight Zone, and finishes with a kind of existentialism that wouldn’t be out of place in a Von Trier film.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review “By turns touching, frightening, and strangely believable. It’s a low-key SF gem with heart.” – SFX Magazine “Peeters and Lévy convey some profound, if profoundly unsubtle, truths about the human condition. Weighty stuff, expertly told.” —The Comics Bulletin “Maximally eerie, unsettling.” – Booklist