Jacob Tremblay, Paul Walter Hauser Are a Young Boy and His Biggest Fear in Trailer for ‘Orion and the Dark’

The first look at Netflix’s upcoming film Orion and the Dark promises a sweet adventure from Being John Malkovich scribe Charlie Kaufman.

Led by Jacob Tremblay and Paul Walter Hauser, DreamWork’s latest CG animated movie serves as Sean Charmatz’s directorial debut, and is based on Emma Yarlett’s book of the same name.

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Tremblay plays Orion, shy, unassuming, harboring a secret crush — your average kid in elementary school. But underneath that normal exterior, he’s a ball of adolescent anxiety. While harboring fears of things like bees, dogs, the ocean, cell phone waves, murderous gutter clowns and falling off cliffs, there’s one thing above all else that terrifies Orion: the dark.

It’s something he must face on a nightly basis, but when the embodiment of that fear appears at his bedside one night, Orion is whisked away by Dark (Hauser) on a roller-coaster adventure around the globe. On the journey, Dark works to prove there is nothing to be afraid of in the night and Orion confronts whether he can stop letting his fears control his life, learn to accept the unknown and embrace the joy of living.

Produced by Peter McCown and executive produced by Walt Dohrn and Bonnie Arnold, Orion and the Dark asks kids in a world both wild and unfamiliar, where everything is bigger and everyone knows just a little more than you, to look what’s scary in the eye and imagine it might not be as terrifying as you think.

Orion and the Dark will release on Netflix Feb. 2, 2024.

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