R&R

A loving couple retreats to a cabin in the mountains, for some fresh air, quiet, and to work on private project they hope will make the whole world a better place.

  • Nicholas Thurkettle
    Director
    Samantha Gets Back Out There, The Retriever, The Dinner Scene
  • Nicholas Thurkettle
    Writer
    Samantha Gets Back Out There, The Retriever, The Dinner Scene
  • Nicholas Thurkettle
    Producer
    Samantha Gets Back Out There, The Retriever, The Dinner Scene
  • Jennifer Weatherup
    Producer
  • Nicholas Thurkettle
    Key Cast
    Cloudy With a Chance of Sunshine, Reclaiming Friendship Park, Revelator
  • Rebecca Shoultz
    Key Cast
  • Amanda Zarr
    Co-Producer
    Samantha Gets Back Out There, The Retriever
  • J. Van Auken
    Cinematographer
    Revelator
  • Nicholas Thurkettle
    Editor
    Samantha Gets Back Out There, The Retriever, The Dinner Scene
  • Jennifer Weatherup
    Art Director
  • Nikki Nina Nguyen
    Makeup/Hair
    The Retriever, The Dinner Scene
  • Darren T. Lodwick
    Production Sound/Boom Operator
    Samantha Gets Back Out There, The Retriever, The Dinner Scene
  • Jenaha McLearn
    Assistant Director
    The Dinner Scene
  • Craig Good
    Post-Production Sound Mixer
  • Elizabeth Suzanne
    2nd Assistant Director
    The Dinner Scene
  • Darren T. Lodwick
    Original Score
    Samantha Gets Back Out There, The Retriever, The Dinner Scene
  • Lark Arrowood
    Art Dept. Asst./Carving Double
  • James Dunovan
    Visual Effects Artist
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama, Horror
  • Runtime:
    13 minutes 13 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 5, 2018
  • Production Budget:
    2,900 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    RED
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.35:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • 2018 Jerome Indie Film & Music Festival
    Jerome, AZ
    United States
    September 30, 2018
    World Premiere
    Official Selection
  • 2018 Lone Star Film Festival
    Ft. Worth, TX
    United States
    Texas Premiere
    Official Selection
  • 2019 Borrego Springs Film Festival
    Borrego Springs, CA
    United States
    January 21, 2019
    West Coast Premiere
  • 2019 South Texas Underground Film Festival
    Corpus Christi, TX
    United States
    January 25, 2019
  • 2019 Pasadena International Film Festival
    Pasadena, California
    United States
    March 17, 2019
    Los Angeles Premiere
    Official Selection
  • 2019 Blackbird Film Festival
    Cortland, New York
    United States
    April 27, 2019
    New York Premiere
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Nicholas Thurkettle

Nicholas Thurkettle is a writer, actor, and filmmaker who has directed five short films to date. His recent short The Dinner Scene played 20 film festivals worldwide and won multiple awards such as People’s Choice – Best Short Film (Borrego Springs Film Festival) and Best Comedy Short (Albuquerque Film & Music Experience). It will debut on the subscription streaming platform Seed & Spark in November.

Independent producer Room 9 Entertainment (Thank You For Smoking) purchased his comedy screenplay Queen Lara, and he has optioned the thriller scripts Snowblind and 7 Red to producers while collaborating with director Antonio Negret (Overdrive) on the action thriller Under the Knife. He was hired to write the Crunchyroll anime pilot Children of Ether for animator LeSean Thomas (The Legend of Korra, Black Dynamite), which premiered on over 300 movie screens as part of Anime Movie Night.

He has three books published – the short story collection Stages of Sleep and the sci-fi thrillers Seeing by Moonlight and A Sickness in Time; the latter two co-written with MF Thomas. His stage plays have been produced on regional stages in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, West Virginia, and Maryland; and throughout California, including at the OC-Centric New Play Festival and the Hollywood Fringe Festival; and his one-act play The Rothko is represented for licensing by publisher Heartland Plays.

He appears in the feature films Cloudy With a Chance of Sunshine, Aventura!, Afterthought, and Revelator. For Reclaiming Friendship Park he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Love International Film Festival. He is also a prolific voice actor in animation, videogames, and audiobooks; and performed for five seasons with the heralded outdoor festival Shakespeare Orange County, serving as Artistic Associate and Casting Director for two of those years.

He is a writer, producer, director, and performer with the award-winning sci-fi/fantasy/horror anthology audio drama podcast Earbud Theater, as well as producer/head writer of their live stage spin-off. He is also the principal narrator for the Parsec Award-winning Brick Moon Fiction podcast, showcasing new short stories from up-and-coming sci-fi and horror authors.

Thurkettle has guest lectured on storytelling and screenwriting for Columbia College of Chicago’s “Semester in LA” program, the Mt. San Antonio College Theatre Department, and his alma mater, Bradley University; he has spoken on panels at the Phoenix Film Festival, Creative Screenwriting Expo, and the Willamette Writers Conference, and judged for both UCLA’s MFA Screenwriting Competition and the Nicholl Fellowship. He is an Associate Programmer – Short Films for the Newport Beach Film Festival, and is a proud member of the Writers Guild of America and the Orange County Playwrights Alliance.

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Director Statement

R&R to me is a story about the power of love; but power can be a dangerous thing. When I think about what fascinates and frightens me about the dark and weird natures people can have, I always come back to this thought that someone’s craziest idea is not only utterly normal to them, it’s buried at such a fundamental, subterranean level of their being that you might know them for years and not ever have it come up.

I also believe there’s a kind of love that gives you the sense of suddenly being tuned into another soul’s frequency on a level that changes you. At a time like that, when your self is being mingled with another, a lot of strange ideas can be created. Who even remembers which one came up with them? All that matters is they share it now. Folie à deux, they call it in French. A madness of two. Romantic, but like I said, dangerous.

We want this to be a beautiful film. But where that beauty leads…we hope to keep at least a few people up at night after watching it.