When screenwriter Colby Day sat down to write In the Blink of an Eye, he wasn’t trying to craft a market-friendly sci-fi script. He was asking a much stranger, more enigmatic question: Can you write a movie about time itself?
The answer became one of Sundance 2026’s most quietly ambitious films, a three-hander spanning the beginning of the universe, the fragility of human connection in the present, and the distant future of our species. Directed by Andrew Stanton and starring Kate McKinnon, Rashida Jones, and Daveed Diggs, the film won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at Sundance for its integration of science and storytelling.
But long before awards or distribution deals, In the Blink of an Eye began as a personal, form-breaking spec, written very quickly with only Day’s voice guiding him.
From Basement Plays to Big Ideas
Day’s path to screenwriting wasn’t linear. Though he entered NYU’s dramatic writing program with dreams of making movies, he found himself surrounded by actors who knew theater, not film.
“Anytime I asked my friends for help, they were like, ‘We don’t really know how to do that. But we could make a play,’” Day says.
So he adapted a screenplay into a play. One play led to another. Soon, he was writing off-Broadway, producing work in basements, and running artist development at the Pipeline Theatre Company. Over six years, he workshopped nearly thirty plays, learning how to articulate a story not just on the page, but out loud, in rehearsal rooms, in collaboration with actors and directors.
Looking back, Day sees that time as a boot camp. “In theater, you’re so involved in every decision. It was this incredible training ground for figuring out what your voice is and what you care about as an artist.”
That clarity helped him as he set his sights on Hollywood.
Writing Fast and Fearlessly
After a decade in New York, Day finally connected with a manager who encouraged him to come to Los Angeles. The timing was serendipitous. He already had a plane ticket and told the manager he’d see him in three days.
Day’s first script, a bizarre creature-feature called 'Giant Killer Slugs', was quickly optioned. Suddenly, he had meetings, representation and momentum, but nothing new to show.
“So I realized I had to write something fast,” he says. “And I wrote In the Blink of an Eye that summer.”
The script, which would later land on The Black List, didn’t fit cleanly into any one genre. It wasn’t traditional sci-fi. It wasn’t a straightforward drama. It was thought-provoking, science-leaning and structurally strange. Which was precisely Day’s point and helped him stand out.
Structure as Concept, Not Formula
At its core, In the Blink of an Eye is built around three interconnected storylines: A Neanderthal family struggling to survive in the distant past; Claire (Rashida Jones), a present-day scientist studying ancient human remains while avoiding emotional intimacy (even from Daveed Diggs!); A spaceship transporting human embryos in artificial wombs to a new planet.
Day knew early on that he wanted the past, present, and future all coexisting on screen. What he didn’t know was how to structure it.
“I really wasn’t outlining it in a traditional way,” he says. “I had a giant table of notecards in three colors and just started playing.”
The eventual structure became musical rather than mechanical: past, present, future repeating in sequence. As the film progresses, the rhythm accelerates, the cuts grow faster, and time itself begins to collapse.
The goal was audacious: begin with the birth of the universe and end at the end of time.
“It sounds insane every time I say it,” Day laughs. “But that was the goal.”
The Acorn and the Emotional Throughline
What keeps the film from becoming abstract is a simple, tangible object: an acorn.
In the present-day storyline, Claire studies ancient remains from Neanderthals. Like the ones we follow in the first story. What connects them is curiosity, the power of human survival and the acorn she found with the ancient human remains.
The acorn becomes a totem, passed from story to story. It’s the visual proof of continuity and helps tie all the characters together.
Writing the Past Without Simplifying It
One of the film’s most exciting choices is its portrayal of Neanderthals, not as primitives, but as emotionally complex humans with urgent, relatable needs.
“It’s very hard to look at the past and not imagine it as simpler,” Day says. “I really wanted to fight that.”
The Neanderthals speak (without subtitles), they argue, love, and fear loss. Their stakes are primal: food, shelter, survival. But Day wanted their inner lives to be just as rich as ours. The ancient people are living in different circumstances but have the same emotional wiring.
The Prickly Protagonist Problem
Claire, played by Rashida Jones, is not written to be warm and fuzzy. She’s driven and emotionally guarded. At least a few producers asked Day to soften her.
“A lot of people said, ‘We wish she were gentler.’ Which always surprised me,” he says.
Day noticed something telling: had Claire been a man, those notes likely wouldn’t have existed.
Instead of compromising, he trusted that a character can begin closed off and still be deeply sensitive. Claire’s arc isn’t about becoming nicer, it’s about becoming emotionally available.
“I’m interested in characters who are their own obstacle,” Day says. “People who wish for connection but don’t know how to let themselves have it.”
Advice for Writers: Take the Swing
For writers working on spec scripts at home, Day’s advice is refreshingly direct.
“Write the biggest, craziest idea you have, the thing nobody’s asking for, but that you desperately want to see.”
In the Blink of an Eye opened doors precisely because it didn’t conform to the marketplace. Its ambition showed Day’s voice and courage.
“If I’d tried to write what I thought the marketplace wanted, I don’t think it would have interested anyone,” he says.
Day took the risk. And in the blink of an eye, everything changed.
In the Blink of an Eye is currently streaming on Hulu.