Taylor Swift's Eras Tour was a source of inspiration for M Night Shyamalan's next film 'Trap'

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: M Night Shyamalan has Taylor Swift to thank for partly providing him the inspiration behind his upcoming movie. 

Shyamalan’s next project, ‘Trap’, is expected to hit the theaters next month. Recently, the 53-year-old director suggested that the film’s storyline is inspired by the record-breaking tour of the 14-time Grammy-winning superstar.

The filmmaker explained his surprising source of inspiration while talking to the British film magazine Empire.

M Night Shyamalan gets inspiration from Taylor Swift

During the interview with Empire, per Parade, the director opened up about his upcoming thriller. When he was asked about the project, he summed up his thriller in one sentence saying, “What if The Silence of the Lambs happened at a Taylor Swift concert?”

Indeed, the trailer of the film, released earlier this month, gives the vibe of a thriller set amid the Eras Tour concert. 

In the trailer, a father and daughter duo can be seen attending a crowded concert to see fictional pop star Lady Raven (you can guess the similarity here). 

However, things take a thrilling turn when the father, played by Josh Hartnett realizes the cops are closely monitoring the concertgoers to find a serial killer known as ‘The Butcher’. 

While it is not yet known whether Hartnett’s character is indeed the killer, the expressions of his face point towards it. Moreover, Shyamalan’s daughter Saleka is playing the character of the pop star Lady Raven who is currently on her sold-out international tour. 

The filmmaker further shared that while set up bears a resemblance with Swift’s The Eras Tour, the film matches in tone with 1991’s psychological thriller, ‘The Silence of the Lambs’. 

While the concert plays an important part in the film, ‘The Sixth Sense’ director shared that he enjoyed creating the concert for the sake of the film as well. 

He explained, “One of the reasons to come see the movie at the movie theater is because there’s literally a real concert that you can see nowhere except in that movie.”

M Night Shyamalan says the film draws from a 1985 incident

Apart from Taylor Swift's concert, the film also draws inspiration from real-life 1985 Operation Flagship. In this incident, fugitives were tricked into attending a fake event with promises of free NFL tickets and a chance to win a Super Bowl trip, per Us Weekly. 

The police officers who were disguised as mascots and cheerleaders later arrested 100 fugitives from the event. 

He shared in the interview, “It was hilarious,” before adding, “The cops were literally cheerleaders and mascots. These guys were dancing as they came in. And they were all caught. It was so twisted and funny.”