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"Hi. My name is Orion. I’m a kid. Just like you. So we have that in common. Anyhow, I saw you sitting there by yourself and thought maybe you’d like some company. I know I would. So that’s why I’m walking up to you right now and--walking right past you. Why, you ask? Because I’m afraid. Afraid of what, you want to know. >So much, really. But in this case, rejection, humiliation, that you might tell your friends and you would all laugh at me. And it’s not just you I’m afraid of. And not just girls in general. It’s most things, to be candid. I have, according to my therapist a Cluster C disorder, which includes feelings of anxiety, inadequacy, extreme worry about negative evaluation. Hence my avoidance of you." - Orion
Release: 2 February, 2024
The Pitch: Orion seems a lot like your average elementary school kid –– shy, unassuming, harboring a secret crush. But underneath his seemingly normal exterior, Orion is a ball of adolescent anxiety, completely consumed by irrational fears of bees, dogs, the ocean, cell phone waves, murderous gutter clowns, even falling off a cliff. But of all his fears, the thing he’s the most afraid of is what he confronts on a nightly basis: the dark. So when the literal embodiment of his worst fear pays a visit, Dark whisks Orion away on a roller coaster ride around the world to prove there is nothing to be afraid of in the night. As the unlikely pair grow closer, Orion must decide if he can learn to accept the unknown –– to stop letting fear control his life and finally embrace the joy of living. (Source)
Director: Sean Charmatz
Cast: Jacob Tremblay (Orion), Colin Hanks (Adult Orion), Paul Walter Hauser (Dark), Angela Bassett (Sweet Dreams), Ike Barinholtz (Light), Natasia Demetriou (Sleep), Golda Rosheuvel (Unexplained Noises), Nat Faxon (Insomnia), Aparna Nancherla (Quiet), Carla Gugino (Orion's Mom), Matt Dellapina (Orion's Dad), Mia Akemi Brown (Hypatia), Shannon Chan-Kent (Adult Hypatia), Shino Nakamichi (Sally), Ren Hanami (Adult Sally), Jack Fisher (Richi Panichi), Nick Kishiyama (Tycho), Werner Herzog (“Meet Dark” Narrator)
The screenplay's 1st draft is available via this website's Scripts/Writing section.
