PLOT

Remus and Ron tells the story of how Remus a 35-year-old eccentric and awkward man ended up in the back of a police car arrested for murder. He looks back on his childhood and reminisces on how he turned out so different from his identical twin brother Ron, despite being inflicted the same bizarre and abusive upbringing.  Exploring themes of nurture vs nature and twisting the stereotypes of a conventional serial thriller, Remus and Ron is a dark and disturbing look at how one twin could be so evil and the other so caring.

STYLE

Remus and Ron is currently being pitched as a mix of Taxi Driver, Dead Ringers, and Mindhunter. The influence of David Fincher’s Mindhunter is not just evident in the story’s exploration of psychopaths but also in the cinematography and directing style. The dark contrasty look of Fincher’s TV and films, plus his smooth cinematic camera style, and precise performances are a massive influence on this film. 

Any filmmakers planning to make a twin film need to study David Cronenberg’s masterpiece Dead Ringers featuring the duel performance by Jeremy Irons. And the filmmakers of Remus and Ron have deeply studied it and it’s making of and will be using similar split screen techniques to bring our multiple duel-performances film to life.

There is no movie out there that has succeeded better than Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver at immersing the audience into the head of a character. Using similar voice-over, slow-paced editing, sound design, and scoring techniques as (one of the director’s favourite films) Taxi Driver that is exactly what we aim to achieve with Remus and Ron.

WHY MAKE THE FILM:

Not only is this a great opportunity for the cast to show off their acting skills by acting opposite themselves on screen, this short will also be a big step up in the crew’s future career as feature filmmakers. Despite having multiple award winning short film credits the crew are currently in a grey zone of too inexperienced to receive Government funding but without funding can’t gain that needed experience. This is also an opportunity for the crew to explore a darker side of their story telling skills, something the writer/director in particular has been itching to do. 

BUDGET BREAKDOWN:

BY DEPARTMENT:
Production Design - $3,500
Camera & Lighting - $5,000
Locations - $2,600
Management & Unit - $1,300
Crew Fees - $600
Total: $13,000

Print & Advertising budget: $2000

Complete budget - $15,000

CAST:

WILL KELLY - Adult Remus/Ron

Bio: Will has over 15 years’ experience in Theatre, Film and Television. He has won numerous awards for both acting and producing. Theatre credits include: RENT, Jesus Christ Superstar and Jekyll and Hyde: The Musical alongside Australian Musical legend Rob Guest. Film and television credits include Hoges: the Paul Hogan Story for Channel 7 as well as many award winning short films that have screened at film festivals around the world including The Insect & the Alien, SHAKES and SEASON. He has starred alongside Guy Edmonds (A Very Moody Christmas), Luke Cosgrove (Stephen King's The Mist) and Christopher Sommers (HARROW, The Bureau of Magical Things).

Statement: Every experience is relative. I was drawn to the challenge of playing twins who experience the same life events but interpret them in completely different ways, and how that drives their very different responses. Both believing they see the experience of their childhood as it truly happened as opposed to simply seeing it through their relative interpretation.

CURTIS HENDRICKX - Child Remus/Ron

Bio: Curtis Hendrickx is a young Brisbane actor on the rise. He has appeared in numerous short films and music videos, as well as adverts for Hallmark Homes and Vuly Trampolines. He was recently one of the featured artists in the RACQ Banks print and TV commercials and was also cast as a lead actor in a new coming of age feature film shot on the Gold Coast and due for release in November 2018. He is now excitedly preparing for the challenging role of twins in the upcoming short film Remus and Ron.

Statement: Curtis states that his goal is to show the diversity of his acting ability in being able to pull off being two characters that are identical in looks but have character traits that are miles apart.

“My inspiration for this role is from personal experience, observing friends, and the great script that I've read with the surprising twist in it. I want to portray the emotion that is so well written in the young characters, to justify the actions for the older characters behaviour.  I am looking forward to working with Branden and his professional team on this production and thank him for this amazing opportunity.”

MICHAEL CUCKSON - Constable Henry Belcalf 

Bio: Michael Cuckson is an Australian actor and voice over artist. For the past 10 years he has worked extensively as an actor for stage and screen, a voice over artist and presenter. His television credits include Sea Patrol, Secrets and Lies and the tele-movie Fatal Honeymoon. Last year he was involved in the shorts The Undoing of Kate Burchell and Freudenstein. He is excited to join Remus & Ron as Constable Henry Belcalf. 

MARIKA MAROSSZEKY - Mrs Wellington, Remus and Ron's Mother

Bio: Marika Marosszeky is a Canadian/Australian actress based in Queensland.  Since completing her acting program at the University of Toronto, she has performed both in various Canadian and Australian theatre/tv/film productions.  Notable performances include playing Juliet in Classical Theatre Project’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ in Toronto, and playing Sheila in award winning Australian short film ‘The Bus Knight’.  She most recently performed in a staged reading of ‘Savage in Limbo’ by John Patrick Shanley (Linda Rotunda) in Brisbane’s ‘The Lucky Duck’, which will also be playing in early 2019.  She also plays Shaz in ‘Smoko’, a new television series currently featured online.  Marika is also thrilled to have recently joined the teaching team at The fACTORy Acting Studio in Brisbane’s West End.

Statement: Playing the role of Mrs. Wellington comes as a welcome challenge to Marika.  Although Mrs. Wellington’s behavior is abusive and abhorrent, Marika sees her as a lost soul who has never been able to recover from her deeply wounding childhood scars.  She aims to approach the role with compassion, to find the humanity of Mrs. Wellington.

CREW:

Branden Wittchen - Writer/director

Bio: Branden graduated from Griffith Film School in 2017 and his career since has mostly consisted of directing music videos for such clients as Tia Gostelow (Triple J Unearthed High and Qld Music Award Winner) and Ian 'Dicko' Dickson (Australian Idol). He is also a multi-award winning filmmaker who wrote and directed short films starring renowned Australian character actors Gyton Grantley (The Dressmaker, Underbelly, House Husbands) and Roy Billing (Jack Irish, The Dish, Underbelly). 

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8471561/

Matt Haslam – Producer

Bio: Matt is a Brisbane based producer and recent graduate of Griffith Film School, working on short form content including short films and music videos. His work includes Lost Tapes (2016), Ascension (2017), The Undoing of Kate Burchell (2017) and Little Dead Bird (2018) which are all currently screening around Australia and internationally. Having worked with Branden, Elliott, Sian and many other members of the crew on previous productions, Matt is keen to create something darker and more twisted with them.

Statement: After the larger scale production of Ascension, which included road closures, phone booths filled with water and stunt work on the side of a bridge, I'm very excited to work on something smaller, more intimate. Being a twin myself, this project really pulled me in, and the ability to explore the darker side of childhood really appealed to me. 
 

Elliott Deem – Director of Photography

Bio: Elliott’s career has consisted of crew roles in the camera department for Hollywood films shot in Australia such as Pacific Rim: Uprising, and local productions including Occupation and Swinging Safari. He has also served as cinematographer on a number of short films and music videos. In his final year at Griffith Film School in 2017, Elliott was nominated for best cinematography for The Undoing of Kate Burchell, which also received ‘Best Film’ at the GFS Awards in 2017.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8519293/

Luke Angelo-Roberts – Editor

Bio: Luke and (writer/director) Branden have had a close relationship since they met at film school and started a production company together. During that time Luke served as editor and co-director on a number of their short films and music videos as well as the majority of their videography gigs.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8471562/

Sian Laycock – Production Designer

Bio: Sian Laycock is a Brisbane based production and costume designer, most recently having worked on Screen Queensland funded short films, Ascension (2017) and Little Dead Bird (2018). While completing her Bachelor’s Degree in Film and Screen Media Production, Sian has been jumping from set to set around Brisbane and the Gold Coast, working with many different and renowned filmmakers to hone her craft.

Michael Angelo Monaco – Sound Designer / Recordist

Bio: Michael is an experienced Sound Designer with a demonstrated history of working in the film & audio industry. Skilled in Pro Tools, Audio Processing, Audio Post Production, Mix Engineering, and Field Recording, Michael is a great addition to our team. Michael has worked on numerous projects around Australia, most recently being Ascension (2017) and Pizza Deliverance (2018), which are both screening around the country and internationally. With a Bachelor of Audio Production from SAE Institute and a Bachelor of Film & Screen Media from Griffith Film School, Michael is keen to showcase his varied skill set on Remus & Ron.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4047506/

PREVIOUS WORK:

Below you can find some of the previous work by the director and crew: