Long shelved film a tribute to a much-loved son who will never be forgotten

The Advertiser

5 days ago

Filmmaker Cameron Miller felt he had nowhere to go after his son's death of congenital heart disease at the age of 17.
Mr Miller, 54, is hoping money raised from his latest film, a project that has been a quarter of a century in the making, will fund a place that offers respite to other parents who find themselves in the same agonising position he found himself in after he lost Shaun in 2012.
"After I lost Shaun, I went through quite an amount of grief and, sort of, you know, had a bit of a breakdown and stuff, and what I realised is we need to have a place for parents," he said.
"I'm hoping that if this film's successful, we can build the first Shaun Miller House... (A place) where they (parents) can go after grieving their child, because there's, there's nowhere to go.
"They just give you a box of their things and say, 'See you later', and you're out the door."
Read more from The Senior
Prior to his death, Shaun had urged Mr Miller to complete Yesterday's Hero, a film he first started working on 25 years ago.
Those early days of production marked an extremely trying time for Mr Miller.
As he worked tirelessly on the film during the day, his cast and crew had no idea he was tending to his seriously ill son, then just five years old, at night.
"I would start in the morning at 6am, and (after filming) I would go into the hospital because my son was very sick and they said he was going to die, so I spent three weeks sleeping in the hospital while I was shooting this film," he said.
Needless to say, when the film's original investor threw out the film's negative, amounting to 30 cans of film stock, he was devastated.
There was no easy way to recover the footage in those days, so, with everything else going on in his life, he felt he had little choice but to shelve the project.
Despite his extremely grave condition, Shaun continued to fight. Three years later, he received a heart transplant. It would buy him almost 10 more years of time with his family, but he ultimately lost his battle to the disease in 2012.
One year prior to his death, Cameron showed Shaun a DVD containing footage he had shot for the film.
"He said, 'Dad, you, you've actually got to finish this. This is very funny... a lot of people will like this.'
Starring comedian Chris Franklin, the film tells the story of a builder's labourer and amateur comedian who rises to fame in Australia, then heads to Hollywood to try and make it big.
Franklin and a number of the film's other stars and cameo performers, includ Corey Feldman, Krista Vendy, Fiona O'Laughlin and AFL great Warwick Capper, have donated their salaries to the Shaun Miller Foundation.
Picking up work on a film that had been abandoned 25 years earlier was no easy feat. After getting Franklin to reprise his role, Mr Miller had to use artificial intelligence and 30 years later sequences to combine old and new footage and bring the story to its conclusion.
"It's got that (The) Castle feel, so it's very, very Australian and that's what Shaun loved about it."
The film is set for completion by the end of August. Mr Miller is planning a theatrical release early next year.
Share your thoughts in the comments below, or send a Letter to the Editor by CLICKING HERE.
Filmmaker Cameron Miller felt he had nowhere to go after his son's death of congenital heart disease at the age of 17.
Mr Miller, 54, is hoping money raised from his latest film, a project that has been a quarter of a century in the making, will fund a place that offers respite to other parents who find themselves in the same agonising position he found himself in after he lost Shaun in 2012.
"After I lost Shaun, I went through quite an amount of grief and, sort of, you know, had a bit of a breakdown and stuff, and what I realised is we need to have a place for parents," he said.
"I'm hoping that if this film's successful, we can build the first Shaun Miller House... (A place) where they (parents) can go after grieving their child, because there's, there's nowhere to go.
"They just give you a box of their things and say, 'See you later', and you're out the door."
Read more from The Senior
Prior to his death, Shaun had urged Mr Miller to complete Yesterday's Hero, a film he first started working on 25 years ago.
Those early days of production marked an extremely trying time for Mr Miller.
As he worked tirelessly on the film during the day, his cast and crew had no idea he was tending to his seriously ill son, then just five years old, at night.
"I would start in the morning at 6am, and (after filming) I would go into the hospital because my son was very sick and they said he was going to die, so I spent three weeks sleeping in the hospital while I was shooting this film," he said.
Needless to say, when the film's original investor threw out the film's negative, amounting to 30 cans of film stock, he was devastated.
There was no easy way to recover the footage in those days, so, with everything else going on in his life, he felt he had little choice but to shelve the project.
Despite his extremely grave condition, Shaun continued to fight. Three years later, he received a heart transplant. It would buy him almost 10 more years of time with his family, but he ultimately lost his battle to the disease in 2012.
One year prior to his death, Cameron showed Shaun a DVD containing footage he had shot for the film.
"He said, 'Dad, you, you've actually got to finish this. This is very funny... a lot of people will like this.'
Starring comedian Chris Franklin, the film tells the story of a builder's labourer and amateur comedian who rises to fame in Australia, then heads to Hollywood to try and make it big.
Franklin and a number of the film's other stars and cameo performers, includ Corey Feldman, Krista Vendy, Fiona O'Laughlin and AFL great Warwick Capper, have donated their salaries to the Shaun Miller Foundation.
Picking up work on a film that had been abandoned 25 years earlier was no easy feat. After getting Franklin to reprise his role, Mr Miller had to use artificial intelligence and 30 years later sequences to combine old and new footage and bring the story to its conclusion.
"It's got that (The) Castle feel, so it's very, very Australian and that's what Shaun loved about it."
The film is set for completion by the end of August. Mr Miller is planning a theatrical release early next year.
Share your thoughts in the comments below, or send a Letter to the Editor by CLICKING HERE.
Filmmaker Cameron Miller felt he had nowhere to go after his son's death of congenital heart disease at the age of 17.
Mr Miller, 54, is hoping money raised from his latest film, a project that has been a quarter of a century in the making, will fund a place that offers respite to other parents who find themselves in the same agonising position he found himself in after he lost Shaun in 2012.
"After I lost Shaun, I went through quite an amount of grief and, sort of, you know, had a bit of a breakdown and stuff, and what I realised is we need to have a place for parents," he said.
"I'm hoping that if this film's successful, we can build the first Shaun Miller House... (A place) where they (parents) can go after grieving their child, because there's, there's nowhere to go.
"They just give you a box of their things and say, 'See you later', and you're out the door."
Read more from The Senior
Prior to his death, Shaun had urged Mr Miller to complete Yesterday's Hero, a film he first started working on 25 years ago.
Those early days of production marked an extremely trying time for Mr Miller.
As he worked tirelessly on the film during the day, his cast and crew had no idea he was tending to his seriously ill son, then just five years old, at night.
"I would start in the morning at 6am, and (after filming) I would go into the hospital because my son was very sick and they said he was going to die, so I spent three weeks sleeping in the hospital while I was shooting this film," he said.
Needless to say, when the film's original investor threw out the film's negative, amounting to 30 cans of film stock, he was devastated.
There was no easy way to recover the footage in those days, so, with everything else going on in his life, he felt he had little choice but to shelve the project.
Despite his extremely grave condition, Shaun continued to fight. Three years later, he received a heart transplant. It would buy him almost 10 more years of time with his family, but he ultimately lost his battle to the disease in 2012.
One year prior to his death, Cameron showed Shaun a DVD containing footage he had shot for the film.
"He said, 'Dad, you, you've actually got to finish this. This is very funny... a lot of people will like this.'
Starring comedian Chris Franklin, the film tells the story of a builder's labourer and amateur comedian who rises to fame in Australia, then heads to Hollywood to try and make it big.
Franklin and a number of the film's other stars and cameo performers, includ Corey Feldman, Krista Vendy, Fiona O'Laughlin and AFL great Warwick Capper, have donated their salaries to the Shaun Miller Foundation.
Picking up work on a film that had been abandoned 25 years earlier was no easy feat. After getting Franklin to reprise his role, Mr Miller had to use artificial intelligence and 30 years later sequences to combine old and new footage and bring the story to its conclusion.
"It's got that (The) Castle feel, so it's very, very Australian and that's what Shaun loved about it."
The film is set for completion by the end of August. Mr Miller is planning a theatrical release early next year.
Share your thoughts in the comments below, or send a Letter to the Editor by CLICKING HERE.
Filmmaker Cameron Miller felt he had nowhere to go after his son's death of congenital heart disease at the age of 17.
Mr Miller, 54, is hoping money raised from his latest film, a project that has been a quarter of a century in the making, will fund a place that offers respite to other parents who find themselves in the same agonising position he found himself in after he lost Shaun in 2012.
"After I lost Shaun, I went through quite an amount of grief and, sort of, you know, had a bit of a breakdown and stuff, and what I realised is we need to have a place for parents," he said.
"I'm hoping that if this film's successful, we can build the first Shaun Miller House... (A place) where they (parents) can go after grieving their child, because there's, there's nowhere to go.
"They just give you a box of their things and say, 'See you later', and you're out the door."
Read more from The Senior
Prior to his death, Shaun had urged Mr Miller to complete Yesterday's Hero, a film he first started working on 25 years ago.
Those early days of production marked an extremely trying time for Mr Miller.
As he worked tirelessly on the film during the day, his cast and crew had no idea he was tending to his seriously ill son, then just five years old, at night.
"I would start in the morning at 6am, and (after filming) I would go into the hospital because my son was very sick and they said he was going to die, so I spent three weeks sleeping in the hospital while I was shooting this film," he said.
Needless to say, when the film's original investor threw out the film's negative, amounting to 30 cans of film stock, he was devastated.
There was no easy way to recover the footage in those days, so, with everything else going on in his life, he felt he had little choice but to shelve the project.
Despite his extremely grave condition, Shaun continued to fight. Three years later, he received a heart transplant. It would buy him almost 10 more years of time with his family, but he ultimately lost his battle to the disease in 2012.
One year prior to his death, Cameron showed Shaun a DVD containing footage he had shot for the film.
"He said, 'Dad, you, you've actually got to finish this. This is very funny... a lot of people will like this.'
Starring comedian Chris Franklin, the film tells the story of a builder's labourer and amateur comedian who rises to fame in Australia, then heads to Hollywood to try and make it big.
Franklin and a number of the film's other stars and cameo performers, includ Corey Feldman, Krista Vendy, Fiona O'Laughlin and AFL great Warwick Capper, have donated their salaries to the Shaun Miller Foundation.
Picking up work on a film that had been abandoned 25 years earlier was no easy feat. After getting Franklin to reprise his role, Mr Miller had to use artificial intelligence and 30 years later sequences to combine old and new footage and bring the story to its conclusion.
"It's got that (The) Castle feel, so it's very, very Australian and that's what Shaun loved about it."
The film is set for completion by the end of August. Mr Miller is planning a theatrical release early next year.
Share your thoughts in the comments below, or send a Letter to the Editor by CLICKING HERE.