DreamWorks Animation and Netflix are planning on coming together for the CG fantasy comedy Orion and The Dark, written by Charlie Kaufman and adapted from book of the same by Emma Yarlett. Animator Sean Charmatz will make his feature debut with this mystical tale about a young boy confronting his greatest fears.
The film follows Orion, an elementary schooler and generally fearful boy who not only fears everything under the sun but is given his worst challenge when the sun is gone, and he has to face the dark. One night, the Dark takes on the form of a spirit and takes Orion on a nocturnal adventure with one core lesson: There’s nothing to fear but fear itself. DreamWorks Animation announced the project title at the Annecy Animation Festival on Tuesday with a studio focus group, screening three excerpts from the project.
The first clip shows the antsy boy living out his day, rehearsing his extensive list of fears in a chant-like manner. “Rejection, humiliation, murderous gutter clowns,” Orion chants. With the back of his trusty notebook displayed to the audience, Orion continues: “Cell phone waves giving me cancer, saying good morning, bees, dogs, the ocean!”
The audience comes to learn that of all the problems on this list, it will always be topped by sheer darkness. However, the Dark is revealed to be a surprisingly warm figure with the goal of eradicating this fear from Orion’s mind. “I’m going to get you to overcome your fears if it kills me,” he chides the boy. “And I’m immortal, by the way, so I have all the time in the world.”
In the second and third clips, the film truly shows off Kaufman’s unique sense of humor, with other characters swirling around this world including Insomnia, Unexpected Noises, and Sleep.
Strategically shown in various stages of the plot, the excerpts exhibit a clean animation style, especially with the Dark being portrayed as a cloak of mist, accompanied by a shadow beneath him at all times.
The cast will be comprised of Jacob Tremblay, who will be voicing Orion, and Paul Walter Hauser, who will take on the role of The Dark.
If nothing else delays the final project, Netflix will release the film in 2024.
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