Like everyone else in 2017, I was gripped by the “Dear David” story that appeared on Twitter. It felt like the perfect ghost story for our times, and we were all along for the ride. When the opportunity to tell a version of Adam Ellis’s story came to me I jumped at it. I always go for projects with dynamic characters and for me that was Adam; here we have a funny, cynical, sarcastic, cartoonist being terrorized in his own bed, pouring his heart out on the Internet. I wanted to tell a story about trauma in the digital age. Through Adam’s story, I could see parallels between hauntings and online abuse. Your home is supposed to be your sanctuary, a place to get away from the world, but what if that space is being invaded by outside forces, buzzing in your pocket, pinging on your screen. What if those same forces are also an addiction, a dopamine hit that you crave day-in and day-out. For Adam, his life is falling apart but his internet notoriety is growing; bringing support but also hate, disbelief, and Trolling. I always felt Adam would be a hard role to cast but when I met Augustus Prew all my worries disappeared. Augustus threw himself headfirst into this role and drew from his own personal traumas and years of battling sleep psychosis. Personally, I feel like I couldn’t have asked for a better Adam. Augustus was my rock on this film and I’ll always love how much he put into this movie. For Evelynn I wanted someone who could make me laugh and fill the frames with charisma. I have always wanted to work with Andrea Bang and felt she would be the perfect Evelynn, bringing her comedic timing and grounded performances. I grew up watching Justin Long and to have him play the character of Bryce (and making him a walking meme) was an absolute joy. I had a wonderful team of people working with me on Dear David. In fact, I met one of the new loves of my life in Director of Photography, Stephen Whitehead, who beautifully captured the film and shares my love of colour. Costume designer, Olga Barsky, literally stalked Adam Ellis on Twitter so we could get his look right and make him pop against the incredible sets designed by our designer, Josh Turpin. Turpin and his team again poured over Twitter images of Ellis' apartment so we could get it as close to the original as possible but with Josh’s twist on it. I really hope audiences enjoy the film, we worked hard to bring something fun and scary for existing and new fans of the haunting that is DEAR DAVID. Read less