Scythe author Neal Shusterman has another adaptation in the works. This one is based on his short story, “Dawn Terminator,” and is being developed by Netflix under the title, Dawn.
“Dawn Terminator” was first published in 1996, but was updated and included in his short story collection, MindWorks: An Uncanny Compendium of Short Fiction, which is set to come out in November 2025. In the short story, the sun has deadly solar flares that a family in a plane heading to Alaska, tries to survive.
“The shorter the piece, the more economical you need to be with story and language,” Shusterman told Publishers Weekly about his approach to writing shorter works of prose. “You have to get a lot across in a very limited amount of time. I find short stories can be a palate-cleanser between larger projects. Also, sometimes I have an idea that just doesn’t feel big enough to be a novel, so I get to explore it in a story. Both forms are rewarding in different ways.”
The screenplay for the Netflix adaptation is being written by A Minecraft Movie scribes Neil Widener and Gavin James. Dylan Clark Productions, the company that backed Carry-On and Bird Box, is producing.
The project is still in its very early days—the script isn’t finalized yet—so no news on casting or if/when we’ll see the adaptation make its way to Netflix.
