“The Twilight Zone,” “Poltergeist,” and “Signs” are reference points for the original sci-fi film from “It Follows” filmmaker David Robert Mitchell.

Inside The End of Oak Street: How Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor ended up fighting dinosaurs in suburbia (exclusive)

"The Twilight Zone," "Poltergeist," and "Signs" are reference points for the original sci-fi film from "It Follows" filmmaker David Robert Mitchell.

By Shania Russell

Shania Russell

Shania Russell is a news writer at *, *with five years of experience. Her work has previously appeared in SlashFilm and Paste Magazine.

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May 29, 2026 9:00 a.m. ET

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Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor in 'The End of Oak Street'. Credit:

- Get an exclusive look at Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor defending suburbia against dinosaurs in *The End of Oak Street*.

- The original sci-fi film marks the latest feature from* It Follows *and* Under the Silver Lake *director David Robert Mitchell.

- The filmmaker cites *The Twilight Zone, Poltergeist*, and M. Night Shyamalan's *Signs* as a few of the film's reference points.

*The End of Oak Street* began with a lifelong love of dinosaurs and one very simple idea.

"A few years ago, I was walking through our neighborhood in Michigan, just walking down the street, and I was passing by this garage [with a] chain link fence and garbage cans," director David Robert Mitchell tells **. "And I was struck by the image of, like, 'It'd be really interesting if there was a dinosaur right there.'"

The *It Follows* auteur could see it clearly in his mind: a prehistoric creature rummaging around the trash or inside the garage. It would be the perfect "merging" of something fantastical and a "mundane, middle-class suburb." So he wrote the script.

Now, ahead of a new trailer arriving Monday, EW is providing an advanced look at the result: a mysterious, action-packed thriller about what happens when dinosaurs disrupt the simplicity of everyday suburbia.

Christian Convery and Maisy Stella in 'The End of Oak Street'.

Warner Bros. Pictures

The sudden appearance of dinosaurs won't be the only mystery plaguing the family of *The End of Oak Street*. There's also the matter of their unexpected departure from, well, the rest of the world.

The film kicks off with a mysterious cosmic event that rips Oak Street from suburbia and transports the neighborhood to someplace unknown where, evidently, dinosaurs run wild. The Platt family soon discovers that their very survival depends on them sticking together amid their new surroundings. But of course, that's easier said than done because, like any other family, the Platts have some complicated dynamics to work through.

"They have family tensions that exist before they are confronted by this incredibly dangerous situation, and it's really about the ways in which that affects their dynamic, for better or for worse," Mitchell says of the family unit played by Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor, Christian Convery, and Maisy Stella.

Mitchell shares that while* Oak Street* has been brewing for quite some time, it "started to fall in place" after Hathaway boarded the project. Like a "chain reaction," Hathaway's involvement was eventually followed by J.J. Abrams and his producing company, Bad Robot. And then they were off to the races.

Anne Hathaway, Jordan Alexa Davis, Christian Convery and Maisy Stella in 'The End of Oak Street'.

Warner Bros. Pictures

Mitchell has nothing but praise when it comes to Hathaway. While fans have been blessed with plenty of fascinating turns from the actress, à la *Mother Mary*, *The Devil Wears Prada 2,* and more to come with *Verity* and *The Odyssey*, Mitchell promises an exciting performance from Hathaway that will catch some viewers off guard.

"Obviously, we all know she's an amazing actress, but it's very cool, the places that she goes to emotionally [in this film]," Mitchell teases. "I think that people will be very surprised."

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Given the roaming prehistoric creatures, scrambling adults, and frightened children, the* Jurassic Park *comparisons are inevitable — not just because of the seismic 1993 film that started it all, but because the franchise as a whole has continued to leave its T. rex-sized footprint on culture, making waves at the box office as recently as last year. But Mitchell looked beyond the Steven Spielberg classic for inspiration.

"Just like anybody, the first *Jurassic Park* movie, I absolutely love. But for me, my language of dinosaur movies goes back much further," Mitchell explains. "I'd be lying if I say that that isn't a movie that I absolutely love because I do. But I wanted to do something different."

As reference points for *Oak Street*, Mitchell cites *The* *Twilight Zone, Poltergeist*, *The Valley of Gwangi, *and M. Night Shyamalan's *Signs*. He adds that viewers can also expect a little bit of that classic "'80s Amblin vibe" from the film, which is itself set in the early '80s.

Ewan McGregor in 'The End of Oak Street'.

Warner Bros. Pictures

"It's the merging of character with spectacle, the way that I think some of those '70s and '80s movies did really well," Mitchell says. "There are moments of drama, of terror and suspense, and humor. It really does move through the range."

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Mitchell adds that his team took care to think big and creatively when it came to the visuals, nodding to one of the buzzy shots glimpsed in the March teaser trailer.

"I'm a huge [Brian] De Palma fan, and I love a split diopter shot," he says. "We put a ton of love into the moments of suspense and trying to have a really interesting visual language for the movie… We would spend hours working with the storyboard artists, planning the sequences, trying to do something interesting and unique."

As for the set pieces, the action centers on what it would feel like to have "your home and your neighborhood" suddenly overrun by roving dinosaurs. So good luck to the Platts.

*The End of Oak Street* arrives in theaters on August 14.

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