M. Night Shyamalan's has signed with 20th Century Fox for his next thriller, The Happening.

The film will mark Shyamalan's first R-rated movie; it's a paranoid thriller about a family on the run from a natural crisis that presents a large-scale threat to humanity. Variety adds the pic is expected to carry a budget of around $57 million, and Shyamalan told Daily Variety he expects to cast a big male star for the lead.

Shyamalan wrote and will direct The Happening in Philadelphia this August. Fox has earmarked the film for a June, 2008 release.