Before you read on, I want you to stop, and watch this. OK, that is a short film called 9, which has won 2 awards and was nominated for an Oscar, it's creator is Shane Acker, who started out working for WETA on Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and has since branched out into doing animated films on his own, and along with 9, he's directed two other animated shorts since 1999. The Hangnail and The Astounding Talents Of Mr Grenade. He's also done some short animations for the internet, that can be seen here. But, it's 9 which has got the attention of one popular director who had great experience in the world of animation, and has even decided to produce a feature length film version of the short film, with Acker writing and directing it, the producer is non other than Tim Burton!!
9 will be a real visual feast, and if it's as anything as good as the original short film is, you know you're in for a good film!!
9 is set in a parallel world, which is an apocalyptic nightmare. It has a group of sapient, semi-robotic ragdolls, whose very existance in this dangerous world is in grave danger, there's a monster going around stealing the souls of the people living in this dark world. But, this group decide to stand up and fight against this monster, led by the titular 9. Who displays great leadership skills and proves to be a good warrior, the rest of the group include 1, a domineering war veteran; 2, an aged inventor; 5, a stalwart mechanic; 6, a visionary and artist; and 7, a brave warrior.
Burton has found a great new talent in Acker, who could go far after this film. The short upon which it was based seems like such a one-off that a feature film may seem pointless, but Acker always had more to tell, and thought it would do well as a film, and Burton shared his enthusiam. Although done in CGI, it'll be done in a way to resemble stop-motion animation, an animation form Burton is all too familiar with!!
Even though Acker's original short was mainly silent, he's got together a very good vocal cast for the film version. They include Jennifer Connelly, Crispin Glover, Martin Landau, Christopher Plummer, John C. Reilly and Elijah Wood as 9!!
Some good choices there, (you can see the Burton connection, he's worked with Landau twice...
) It's been in production since late 2006/early 2007, with the bulk of the animated work taking place out in Luxembourg. It's all been kept under-wraps for a while, and it's been shrouded in secrecy. But, it's due for release in America on December 26th 2008, just in time for Oscar consideration!!
Focus Features have picked the film up, (one of two animated films they'll be releasing around that time, the other being Coraline...
)
Poster for the original animated short!!
Anyone like the look of that, and can it live up to the standard of the original animated short?? The original short was so well made and is very inventive, and even quite suspenseful, it does make you wonder whether they can stretch it to movie length. I hope they can, it does seem very original and it should be a world away from the bright, colourful animations we get these days, something darker and more visually stunning. Oh, and the film's other producer is Timur Bekmambetov, best known for directing Night Watch (2005), Day Watch (2006) and Wanted (2008).
