Reuben puts pen to paper to share his Shard experience Last August we spoke to Reuben Cullen for our In Conversation feature about how his time spent holidaying on the Mornington Peninsula fuelled his creativity and imagination from a young age. Reuben’s always got a real kick out of showing people the world through his eyes, and his used his own experience with addiction and recovery to inspire and empower children to be their own hero in his book that he released last year, A Hero Born. Now he’s creating a short film called Shard. It’s been a four-year process to write the movie with his friend Adam Wierzbowski, where this everyday bloke has drawn on some of his experiences to help others who might be suffering in similar ways. Shard follows Reuben’s struggles with drug addiction, mental health, and suicide. Stig Wemyss, from Mezzanine Films, has come on board as the director, with Reuben working closely alongside him. Arthur ( 42
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Angel, known for his acting in the iconic Australian film Red Dog as well as others including Ghost Rider with Nicolas Cage and The Chronicles of Narnia, has come on as an associate producer. Reuben’s goal is that hopefully one day the short film will do exactly what Reuben and Adam set out to do – help others. “The team have worked pretty damn hard on this project for a long time and now we’re ready people,” said Reuben. “With the devastation ice causes, coupled with the fact that one in five Australians today are suffering from mental health, we as a community are ready to do something with lasting benefits, particularly after the last 12 months we have all endured.” In 2017 Reuben and Adam began writing his story as a full-length movie after people repeatedly would tell him that he could make a movie out of his life stories. It was only when Adam bumped into Stig that one thing led to another, and Stig invited them to send over the script. Although it needed plenty of work, he loved the first 20 pages but
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