Dear David Trailer: Movie Based on Viral Twitter Thread Reveals First Look

Lionsgate has released the first trailer for Dear David, a movie based on a viral Twitter thread, in which a Buzzfeed writer fighting with trolls goes to bed — and wakes up haunted by the ghost of a child named David. John McPhail, who directed the zombie musical Anna and the Apocalypse, is taking on the directing task. Adam Ellis, the original Buzzfeed writer, is on board as an executive producer, and Buzzfeed Studios is backing the movie as well. Fun fact you may have forgotten: after the 2017 tweet thread went viral, Ellis capitalized on his internet fame by landing a Travel Channel series where he visited maybe-haunted houses.

Ellis’s thread was a weeks-long event, detailing how he was haunted “by the ghost of a dead child” who was “trying to kill” him. As horror stories go, it started innocuous enough with weird behavior by his cats and unexplained phenomena in the hallway of his building, but feelings of dread and bad dreams prompted Ellis to document all of it including setting up cameras in his bedroom and apartment. In one of his dreams, Ellis said he was “in a library and a girl came up to me and said, ‘You’ve seen Dear David, haven’t you?’,” and in another Dear David — a child with an oversized, misshapen head — sat by his bed and watched him.

You can see the trailer below.

Augustus Prew will be playing Ellis while Justin Long is playing Ellis’s boss at Buzzfeed.

As the thread evolved, photos of “David” appeared in Ellis’ feed, resulting in plenty of scrutiny from skeptics and sending believers to turn on all the lights in their hoomes. Considering his place of employment there was some doubt by many as to the validity of Ellis’ tale, but in a 2018 interview with TheWrap he stood by his viral thread and maintained it was all real.

“I’ve never been interested in convincing anyone that ghosts are real – I just wanted to tell my story,” Ellis said. “If it was all fiction, I probably would’ve updated more than once every couple weeks!”

Here’s the closest thing we have to an official synopsis:

Going Viral is a Nightmare. 

 After responding to Internet trolls, a man becomes haunted by the ghost of a dead child named David. 

Based on the viral Twitter thread by BuzzFeed comic artist Adam Ellis.