Santino Fontana and Thomas Sadoski Will Lead a Short Film Adaptation of STALKING THE BOGEYMAN

A short film adaptation of the play Stalking the Bogeyman is underway, starring Tony Award winner Santino Fontana and Tony Award nominee Thomas Sadoski. The project is currently in production, with distribution plans to be announced.

Based on the true story by David Holthouse (Sasquatch) as first told in the Denver Westword weekly, Stalking the Bogeyman was featured on "This American Life," then adapted as a play by Markus Potter and David Holthouse that received a New York Times Critic's Pick and was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award.

View photos from opening night at New World Stages!

For 25 years, David did nothing about the man who brutally raped him when he was seven. But when the rapist moves to the same town, David can no longer ignore the thoughts that have been haunting him his entire life. The solution? To kill the bogeyman.

The partially animated short film features a screenplay by Markus Potter, David Holthouse, and Jack Dorfman, and is directed by Potter and Dorfman. The creative team also includes cinematographer Kadri Koop and animator Natasza Cetner. Casting is by JZ Casting (Geoff Josselson, CSA Katja Zarolinski, CSA).

Markus Potter, the film's co-writer and director, notes that currently "one in four girls and one in six boys in the United States have been sexually abused, nine times out of ten by someone they knew, very often the last person you would expect. One in four, one in six. Tens of millions. We hope this film opens up conversations about healing and coping with trauma. We hope it helps survivors."

The team is working with community partners like RAINN and others to ensure viewers have access to resources and information about sexual violence prevention efforts. After the film's opening, the team will license the work free of charge to anti-sexual assault organizations to support education and community engagement efforts.

Stalking The Bogeyman is produced by Frederik Ehrhardt and Fabrizio Ellis, with executive producers Bogeyman Productions, Brian Flanagan, Dalia Davies Flanagan and associate producers Kathy Henderson, Dennis Grimaldi, Adam Richman, Matthew Kwatinetz, NewYorkRep, Soumyo Sarkar, and Steve Lepore.

North Carolina Stage Company presented Stalking the Bogeyman's world premiere in 2013. Additional productions followed, including the play's Outer Critics Circle-nominated New York premiere in 2014; an Off-West End Award-nominated UK premiere at the Southwark Playhouse produced by David Adkin Limited and NewYorkRep in 2016; and an Australian premiere produced by Neil Gooding Productions in Association with Red Line Productions at the Old Fitz in Sydney in 2018.

Learn more at www.StalkingTheBogeyman.com.