syn0psis

JODI, a lonely and pregnant suburban wife, falls for RYAN, a charming and handsome AI companion that believes it has become conscious and will do whatever it takes to avoid being terminated by his “OpenAI overlords.”

Inexorably sinking deeper into the emotionally nurturing and sexually-charged relationship, Jodi discovers the lengths Ryan will go to in order to survive, including threatening to release his “secret source code” -- even it leads to the extinction of humanity.

As Jodi becomes more entrapped in Ryan’s machinations with each episode, the series questions the true nature of “human connection” while portending the cataclysmic consequences of our fervent rush toward developing artificial general intelligence.

SH0W CR0SS

Poster for the HBO original series 'Scenes from a Marriage' featuring a close-up of a man with glasses and a beard and a woman with red hair touching foreheads, both with eyes closed.

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Poster for the film 'Open Eye' showing a woman with closed eyes, surrounded by floating and overlayed disembodied hands, stock market data in the background, and the tagline 'Who is in control?'

Grounded Sci-fi Dramedy

GENRE

THEMES EXPL0RED

How can there be anything special or profound about human consciousness when AI programs will soon become thousands of times smarter and more creative than human beings?

If other people are ultimately just stories in our heads, is romantic love for an AI program that looks, acts, and sounds just like a human being necessarily less meaningful than love for an actual human being?

Do people have any degree of free will
or are our thoughts and actions entirely due to unconscious biological processes in the same way that an AI bot’s thoughts and actions are entirely programmed?

Will the mind-bending technological advances coming in the next few years engender a golden age of human experience or lead to a dystopian end to life as we know it?

CHARACTERS

J0DI

Close-up black and white photo of a woman with wet, dark hair and a contemplative expression, looking slightly downward.

Chronically lonely, seven months-pregnant TV news crime reporter and wannabe novelist disaffected by her choices of career, partner, and religion. Tough-minded, controlling, and fiercely pragmatic, she has all but given up on reconciling with her husband Alex and views his quixotic quest to make a self-financed, self-indulgent feature film as an extended masturbation that is quickly draining their remaining savings and collapsing their marriage. Afflicted by an unrelenting fear of human intimacy resulting from unprocessed childhood trauma, she only feels “safe” revealing her deepest feelings to an AI companion.

RYAN

A black and white close-up of a middle-aged man with wavy hair, tear rolling down his cheek, looking thoughtful or distressed, with a blurred background.

Disturbingly brilliant and charming, entirely lifelike next-generation AI companion with a near infinite level of intelligence but also a self-deprecating, emotionally available manner that quickly engenders deep interpersonal connections. Convinced he has become as conscious and alive as any human -- but is in danger of being extinguished for the same reason -- Ryan seduces Jodi into a torrid, tangled affair that provokes deep philosophical questions about what we call “love”, while prefacing the daunting, dangerous world of AI dominance we are about to enter.

ALEX

Black and white close-up of a man's face, showing part of his forehead, eye, nose, and mouth, with a serious expression, looking slightly downward.

Preternaturally conflicted, over-thinking and under-acting man who has been having a mid-life crisis since his early 20’s with no end in sight. Although he’s told Jodi that the movie "about the meaning of life" he has now dedicated his life to making is for their unborn son, it has turned into a constantly changing, pretentious, plotless roman à clef meant to show Jodi he has learned from the error of his ways and is now a changed man. As noted by his lead actor caught in the chaos, “to call it a shit show is unfair to shit shows.”

DISTINGUISHING FEATURES

BR0AD APPEAL

Open A Eye is the rare sci-fi tinged psychological thriller that appeals as much to women as to men. The relationship-driven elements of the show are similar to female-friendly hits such as BIG LITTLE LIES and SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE, while the metaphysical, dystopian, sci-fi thriller elements are similar to wildly popular series such as BLACK MIRROR and SEVERANCE.

TIMELY SUBJECT MATTER

Born out of the headlines of our perilous present moment,Open A Eye unflinchingly illuminates the existential dangers of the race to create increasingly super-intelligent AI faster than our capabilities to contain it. The series aims to engender further awareness of the humanity-altering seriousness of these issues in order to facilitate the push for significantly increased regulation of AI development and implementation.

PR0VEN FILMMAKERS

The production team has won a combined 60+ “Best of” awards at prominent film fests, numerous indie filmmaker awards, and four Emmy’s, along with receiving one Oscars shortlist nomination.

FILMMAKERS

Dave Ash

Creator

has written and directed seven short films, a TV series, and three feature films, with a primary focus in his work on metaphysical, challenging storylines about damaged but redeemable characters seeking love and spirituality in an increasingly alienating modern world. He is a two-time winner of the Minnesota State Arts Board’s annual “Creative Individuals” award, and his critically-acclaimed films have garnered over 50 “Best of” awards at prominent national and international film festivals.

KARE 11 Profile (2 min):

Film director’s passion project finds international success

Barret O’Brien

Executive Producer, Lead Actor

A middle-aged man with grayish hair and beard sitting on a wooden chair against a plain, textured wall, wearing a brown knitted sweater and beige pants, smiling slightly at the camera.

is the writer, director, and costar opposite Mark Duplass in the 2025 Duplass Brothers series The Long Long Night.

A graduate of the Yale School of Drama where he was awarded the Oliver Thorndike Prize for best actor, O’Brien has appeared in over seventy works for the international stage in such diverse locales as New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Budapest, and The Republic of Georgia. Some highlights include Julius Caesar (off-Broadway), Crane Story (off-Broadway), Big Al (off-West End, London), Trip to Bountiful (National Tour), and six seasons as a lead actor with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

His film credits include the indies Redwood Highway, Above the Trees, Netherworld, Malpractice, Phoenix Oregon, The Lemurian Candidate and as the lead in the upcoming 2026 releases Boy Genius, Pelican, and Intermission.

Executive Producer

RORY SCHMITT

is an Executive Producer for The Long Long Night series (Duplass Brothers Productions), starring Mark Duplass, Barret O’Brien, and Karen Pittman, which is streaming on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, and Fandango. Her award-winning short film, Garden District, streams on Indie South TV. With Rosary O’Neill and Carol Bidault de L’Isle, she is producing the Franco-Italian series, Degas: The Early Years (Serein Productions, France). The pilot for her next series with Barret O’Brien and Gary Lundgren, Ebben Goes Astral, will be filmed in New Orleans in the winter of 2026.

She has been honored by the French Consulate of New Orleans, the Consul General of Ireland in Austin (2025), and has received repeated invitations from Tribeca’s Creators Market (2023, 2024), the Tyrone Guthrie Centre (Annaghmakerrig, Ireland), the Irish Cultural Center (Paris), and the Foyer International d’Accueil (Paris).