Roborovski Announced As Part Of Screen Australia Investing In Local Talent

Dev Patel’s brilliance could take Australian content to a new level.

Screen Australia is continuing to invest in local talent and they’ve nabbed some big names for an ambitious animated project from Dev Patel that will also utilize VR technology. The project is called Roborovski, a 12-minute animated short and virtual reality project that follows Roborovski, an adorable thimble sized hamster that spends his days in Marvin’s Pet Shop, hoping to find a family. When he is constantly overlooked by the people and animals around him his seething resentment and intense jealousy soon takes hold and a murderous side of little Roborovski is released. Dev Patel (Hotel Mumbai), John Collee (Happy Feet) and Tilda Cobham-Hervey (I Am Woman) have co-written the project and Patel and Cobham-Hervey are also co-directing. It will be produced by Jomon Thomas (Hotel Mumbai), Dev Patel, and Tilda Cobham-Hervey and co-produced by Mark Grentell (The Merger), and Elaine Beckett. Spectre Studios makers of Wyrmwood VR are using cutting edge technology to create this VR and animation project. This project was financed with support from Create NSW.

Our Take

Australia breathes The Simpsons, seriously, the series is a national treasure there. So it comes as no surprise that there are producers probably raised on that show who want to one day produce content on their own. We’ve seen efforts in the past like Bin Chickens, Pacific Heat, and the like with mixed results, but Dev Patel is a brilliant actor who has worked with some of the most talented people in the world, one would hope some of that had rubbed off on him to make something special with Screen Australia.