Introduction

The original idea behind Red came from my good film making friend Rob Hamilton.

In 2005 Rob saw an advertising campaign for a flavoured milk drink called Rush which featured a Red Riding Hood character with a large wolf tattoo on her arm.

From this image Rob came up with the concept for a film where, after the loss of her grandmother, Little Red Riding Hood (simply known as Red) becomes a contracted wolf hunter who actually does battle with wolves for a commission. In his version there was this big action, battle sequence between the girl and the wolf where she was the eventual victor.

I loved the concept of how Rob described the character of Red (especially in the end sequence which has carried over to my version practically unchanged) and was somewhat envious of his great ideas because I could see the vast dramatic scope the film offered. In December 2005, Rob released a trailer for the film which was very well received amongst our friends who were really keen on seeing him get the film underway, from there it seemed only natural that Red would eventually become a reality under his direction.

Throughout 2006 Rob discovered that making an actual film was going to be a problematic task, especially as he was forever working on other Projects (mainly mine) which took up all his time, so in September 2006 he discussed with me the idea of making a new trailer. It was at this point I asked him whether I could obtain the "rights" to Red so I could work on the story myself as I wanted to take his ideas and point them along a completely different path. Fortunately Rob is a pretty level headed guy so he had no hesitation in allowing me to develop it further, this resulted in a number of great ideas being discussed right there and then which in turn formed the basis of my story which was written the following day.

As an addition to this new arrangement, I also mentioned to Rob that if I was to write the new story I had to be allowed to Direct the film due to the new level of dramatic creativity I would inject into it. After further discussion, we agreed that I would be the Director of the main dialogue sequence while Rob would tackle the wolf scenes, however, in mid 2009 I announced that Red would be my last short film and as such I asked for permission from Rob to take the whole production under my control, to which he agreed.

All I have to do now is make it.

For myself I'm doing Red purely because I love the story, especially as I'd like to think I've taken the Red Riding Hood concept and gone somewhere with it that no one would ever consider. For this reason I see it as some of my best work and I really look forward to seeing the film become a reality, especially as it'll be the biggest and most expensive production I've done - what a great way to finish my short film making career!

Darren Maxwell - Writer/Director, December 2009