Anna & The Asteroid

'Anna & The Asteroid' is a literal cosmic love story. An inbound asteroid, voiced by Peter Grosz (Veep, The President Show), is making its way towards the love of its life, Anna (Westworld's Shannon Woodward). As the world panics, the conscientiously apathetic Anna seems resigned to her (and the planet's) fate, even when she realizes that she always seems to be standing exactly where NASA recalculates the asteroid's impact location. With all of life in her unwilling, annoyed hands, Anna must decide whether the general headache of existence is worth continuing.
Directed by multiple Emmy, WGA, and Peabody Award-winning writer Scott Sherman (The Daily Show, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, The Colbert Report), Anna & The Asteroid's cast also includes Okieriete Onaodowan (original cast member of Broadway's 'Hamilton,' The Get Down), Mike Carlsen (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), Sas Goldberg (Odd Mom Out), and Michael Torpey (Orange Is The New Black)

  • Scott Sherman
    Director
    The Daily Show, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, The Colbert Report, Important Things with Demetri Martin
  • Scott Sherman
    Writer
    The Daily Show, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, The Colbert Report, Important Things with Demetri Martin
  • Chris Werner
    Producer
    Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
  • Shannon Woodward
    Producer
    Westworld, Raising Hope, The Riches
  • Shannon Woodward
    Key Cast
    Westworld, Raising Hope, The Riches
  • Okieriete Onaodowan
    Key Cast
    Hamilton (Original Broadway cast), The Get Down
  • Peter Grosz
    Key Cast
    Veep, The President Show
  • Mike Carlsen
    Key Cast
    Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
  • Michael Torpey
    Key Cast
    Orange is the New Black
  • Sas Goldberg
    Key Cast
    Odd Mom Out
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Black Comedy, Sci-Fi
  • Runtime:
    24 minutes 55 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    March 1, 2017
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    4k
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.35
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Boston Film Festival
    Boston
    United States
  • Calgary International Film Festival
    Calgary
    Canada
  • Florida Film Festival (upcoming)
    Winter Park
    United States
Director Biography - Scott Sherman

Scott Sherman is currently a staff writer on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. He is a two-time Emmy winner, a four-time WGA award winner, and a two-time Peabody winner. Other writing credits include Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, The Colbert Report, Important Things with Demetri Martin, The Onion, and several nonfiction humor books.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

"Nothing new is ever gonna happen." - Anna Reedman

Existence is an exercise in repetition. Be born, live, die, repeat. There's nuance along the way, but those are the big bullet points and they are firm and unchanging. So occasionally it's a good idea to check in and ask if we think it's really worth the trouble to continue, especially during a moment when the world seems hellbent on ripping itself in two. Will anything we create, anything we improve, anything we contribute live on? For a time, yes, but the earth, and for that matter the universe, has an expiration date. So it falls to us to continually justify why we keep doing literally anything in the face of that final inevitability.

Enter Anna, who has no interest in making such a justification. She's a conscientious objector to existence. In a perverse way, she and a planet-destroying asteroid are perfect for each other. So what does it take to get that kind of person - a person who sees the act of saving the world as merely a postponement of The End - to bother taking one for the proverbial team?

...So, yes, obviously this script was written during a low moment. I wasn't trying to capture that low moment though. I was trying to write my way out of it, and in doing so, I figured out what Anna ultimately does. Writing is a simple thing. It's arranging a few modern glyphs together in a line. That's all. But that was the simple thing I needed in order to move forward. Likewise, all Anna needs is a simple thing to move forward. The challenge is not saving the world, it's finding the simple thing that convinces her it's worth doing.

- Scott Sherman