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LATE DEVELOPMENT · FEATURE FILM
SPIRIT WEEK
Indie Superhero Thriller · English
Seeking financing & partners
During the worst week of his life, a teen becomes convinced he has supernatural powers—while his mother fights for the man he will become.
$5.15M
Net budget
25 days
Shoot, Winnipeg
Written & directed by Jeremy Merrifield
Produced by Dream Three with Scythia Films
Q2 2027
Target start
01 / OVERVIEW
The film. The momentum. The opportunity.
THE STORY
A mother. A son.
Two kinds of power.
A teenager’s search for power collides with his mother’s fight to reach him. A coming-of-age story told from both sides of a generational divide.
PROOF & MOMENTUM · BALLOON
A feature-length expansion of the viral, award-winning short film, BALLOON.
6.7M+
YouTube views
40+
Festivals
25+
Honors
-
WINNER Young Director Award
Cannes Lions -
WINNER Student Emmy for Best Drama
Television Academy -
WINNER Grand Prix Award, Oscar-qualified
HollyShorts
THE OPPORTUNITY
Move the feature
into production.
Seeking financing, distribution and production partners who share the conviction for this story and its intended theatrical audience.
SELECTED U.S. Shorts to Features
Gotham Week Project Market 2026
02 / STORY
The worst week
of his life.
After a bullying video goes viral, Sam can’t escape his most humiliating moment. When he inherits his dying father’s ‘meteor’—a seemingly ordinary rock—he develops superpowers. As his school’s spirit week careens toward homecoming, his mother Connie fights to reach him before the power turns him into the thing she raised him not to be.
For young viewers, a mirror of growing up inside the algorithm. For adults, a reckoning with the ideals of masculinity we inherit—and the cost of passing them forward.
Stills from BALLOON
FROM THE SCREENPLAY
“You grow up. You realize there’s no magic. There’s just what you do. And who you become in the process.
That’s the only real superpower.”
Dillon · SPIRIT WEEK
FROM THE WRITER-DIRECTOR
I was sitting on the couch with my four-year-old nephew, and I wondered how this cute kid could ever grow up to commit these horrible acts in the news? Surely all those men were once cute kids, too. But then they grew up.
I began to explore these questions as a film. It seemed fitting to mirror our cultural obsession with masculine power with our cultural obsession with superheroes.
The film invites us to expand our idea of what being a man can mean—and asks if there could ever be such a thing as a “superman.” It’s a story that is, unfortunately, more prescient than ever.
JEREMY MERRIFIELD
03 / CAST & CREATIVE TEAM
The people behind the film.
TALENT ATTACHMENTS
SAM
Woody Norman
C’MON C’MON (BAFTA NOMINATION) · THE ELECTRIC STATE
OFFICER HART
Paul Scheer
THE LEAGUE · TWISTERS · BALLOON · BLACK MONDAY
DEAN SPARKS
Josh Gad
FROZEN · BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
CARA
Brooklynn Prince
THE FLORIDA PROJECT · COCAINE BEAR
MS. BRODY
Saleka Night Shyamalan
TRAP · SINGER‑SONGWRITER
BRANDON
Michael James Scott
SCRUBS · ALADDIN (BROADWAY)
CREATIVE & PRODUCING TEAM
Writer / Director
Jeremy Merrifield
AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE · BALLOON ·
CANNES LION YOUNG DIRECTOR AWARD
Producer, Dream Three
Kate Chamuris
AMPAS + PGA MEMBER FOR VFX PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT · DISNEY · LUCASFILM · SONY
Casting Director
Debby Romano, CSA
SHRINKING · SCRUBS · FIVE EMMY NOMINATIONS · BALLOON
Producer, Scythia Films
Jordan Hart
THE WEDDING BANQUET · ENDLESS COOKIE
Line Producer
Jackie Carr
NAIL HOUSE · UNSTOPPABLE · THE GILDED AGE · CAPTIVE STATE
Visual Effects
Deep Voodoo VFX
FOUNDED BY TREY PARKER AND MATT STONE
Producer, Scythia Films
Daniel Bekerman
THE WITCH · READY OR NOT · MY OLD ASS
Cinematographer
Frances Kroon
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY, TRIBECA 2022 · BALLOON · AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE
Music
Moby
LITTLE WALNUT FILMS
Packaged by WME and Range Media Partners.
04 / WHERE IT STANDS
The plan behind the production.
Financing
Net production budget
$5.15M
Production plan
PROPOSED SHOOT
25 days
WORKING PATTERN
Five-day weeks
Gross budget, before incentives
$7.42M
Canadian tax credits
$2.27M
Seeking
Equity, gap, and sales agent
LOCATION
Winnipeg, Manitoba
SCREENPLAY
Reader draft
TARGET START
Spring 2027
BUDGET PREPARED
Scythia Films, Aug 2026
Reference information, not an offer. Detailed materials are available through a project inquiry.
05 / MATERIALS
See the work.
BALLOON · Short Film
BALLOON · Trailer
YouTube
16 min · Proof of Concept Screener
06 / LET’S TALK
Start a conversation.
Discuss SPIRIT WEEK, explore a potential collaboration, or request the materials most relevant to your interest.
AVAILABLE ON REQUEST
Screenplay
Reader draft
Budget and schedule
Winnipeg, Manitoba, CN
Financing plan
Current version
Current version
Comparables and market analysis
For information only. Nothing on this page is an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any security.