Kiah and Tristan Roache-Turner have parlayed their 2015 cult hit Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead into a digitally animated, interactive virtual reality experience and are developing a TV series spin-off and a video game.
The Wyrmwood VR experience developed around their online teaser Wyrmwood: Chronicles of the Dead will premiere at Create NSW’s 360 Vision at Carriageworks in November.
Co-produced by the brothers’ Guerilla Films and Spectre Studios, the 15-minute VR work places the viewer into a photo-realistic digital reconstruction of the Wyrmwood world based around a captive’s escape from an underground military bunker.
Asked how they planned to monetise the production, which was supported by Screen Australia and Create NSW, Tristan Roache-Turner tells IF: “We will release it on the digital platform Steam. As the VR market grows we aim to have a Wyrmwood VR experience, VR game and console game available on all of the major platforms.
“Also, VR technology has many other valuable production applications including pre-visibility during development and pre-production and during post. Digital assets created can be used for CGI and can be recycled into other revenue streams such as gaming, VR gaming, AR (augmented reality) and MR (mixed reality). The future holds many exciting prospects.”
Kiah and Tristan wrote the pilot for the one-hour live action series which Kiah would direct, featuring some of the original characters as well as new characters. The brothers are pitching the show to local and international streaming networks.
Guerilla Films and Spectre Studios are developing a gory, action-intense Wyrmwood video game which they plan to produce and release in 2019.
Their sci-fi horror-comedy Nekrotronic, which stars Monica Bellucci, David Wenham, Ben O’Toole, Caroline Ford, Tess Haubrich and Charmaine Bingwa, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and will be released by eOne next year.
The brothers have multiple projects in development including a horror-drama about teenage witches having fun with magic; an action-horror movie about aliens living among us; and another about guardian angels helping humans in the battle against their inner demons.