Film
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Director Statement
I did not come to this story from the outside.
I know addiction from the inside. I know what it means to be imprisoned — physically, and in the longer, quieter way that depression and substances can lock a person inside themselves for years. I know the specific shame of having hurt people who didn't deserve it, and the harder, slower work of asking whether repair is still possible. The question at the center of this film — is it ever too late to make things right? — is not rhetorical for me. It is a question I have lived.
What I wanted to make was a film that tells the truth about that experience without flinching, and without the false comfort of a clean resolution. Rob and Sam are not heading toward an answer. They are heading toward each other — imperfectly, sideways, and constantly on the verge of the next wrong thing. That felt true to me. That is how people actually move through grief and guilt and the wreckage of unfinished relationships.
I have spent 15 years making other people's stories. I have directed commercials, campaigns, and branded content for some of the biggest names in the world. That work taught me craft, precision, and how to protect a vision under pressure. But this is the first time I have pointed the camera at something that kept me up at night.
What makes me the right person to tell this story is not just the personal connection — it is that I have built the skills to tell it properly. I understand how to create a set environment that is both safe and creatively alive, where actors can go to real places because the foundation underneath them is solid. I speak both languages — the creative and the practical — and on a film this intimate, that fluency is everything.
The Next Wrong Thing is a culmination of everything I have learned: how to hold space, how to lead with clarity, and how to tell a story with honesty. It is personal. It is vulnerable. And it is exactly the kind of work I intend to keep making — grounded, collaborative, and deeply human.
Director
Ian Moore
Writer
Isabella Petrosian
Writer
Ian Moore
Producer
Gustavo Padron
Producer
Spencer Davies
Producer
John Lynch
Producer
Heaven Devera
Key Cast
Tarkan Dospil
Key Cast
Ian Moore
Key Cast
The Next Wrong Thing
| The Next Wrong Thing | |
| Narrative Feature Films, Comedy or Dramedy Films | |
| parental loss, daughter, family, estate, addiction, grief, | |
| 87 minutes | |
| United States | |
| 2026 | |
| English |
Synopsis:
After finding out her father Ian has died, Sam is left with his beat up truck, an old motorcycle, and VHS tapes detailing a quest with her godfather Rob to find the treasure that Ian has hidden for her.Director Statement
I did not come to this story from the outside.
I know addiction from the inside. I know what it means to be imprisoned — physically, and in the longer, quieter way that depression and substances can lock a person inside themselves for years. I know the specific shame of having hurt people who didn't deserve it, and the harder, slower work of asking whether repair is still possible. The question at the center of this film — is it ever too late to make things right? — is not rhetorical for me. It is a question I have lived.
What I wanted to make was a film that tells the truth about that experience without flinching, and without the false comfort of a clean resolution. Rob and Sam are not heading toward an answer. They are heading toward each other — imperfectly, sideways, and constantly on the verge of the next wrong thing. That felt true to me. That is how people actually move through grief and guilt and the wreckage of unfinished relationships.
I have spent 15 years making other people's stories. I have directed commercials, campaigns, and branded content for some of the biggest names in the world. That work taught me craft, precision, and how to protect a vision under pressure. But this is the first time I have pointed the camera at something that kept me up at night.
What makes me the right person to tell this story is not just the personal connection — it is that I have built the skills to tell it properly. I understand how to create a set environment that is both safe and creatively alive, where actors can go to real places because the foundation underneath them is solid. I speak both languages — the creative and the practical — and on a film this intimate, that fluency is everything.
The Next Wrong Thing is a culmination of everything I have learned: how to hold space, how to lead with clarity, and how to tell a story with honesty. It is personal. It is vulnerable. And it is exactly the kind of work I intend to keep making — grounded, collaborative, and deeply human.
Credits:
Ian MooreDirector
Ian Moore
Writer
Isabella Petrosian
Writer
Ian Moore
Producer
Gustavo Padron
Producer
Spencer Davies
Producer
John Lynch
Producer
Heaven Devera
Key Cast
Tarkan Dospil
Key Cast
Ian Moore
Key Cast