Atomic Robot News: '9' (2009)(Focus Features)

'9' (2009)(Focus Features)

Source: Focus Features

An action-packed adventure, director Shane Acker's animated fantasy epic 9 is the feature-length expansion of his Academy Award-nominated 2004 short film of the same name. The screenplay for the feature is by Pamela Pettler (Monster House); directors Tim Burton (Beetlejuice) and Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted) are among the feature version's producers.

The time is the too-near future. Powered and enabled by the invention known as the Great Machine, the world's machines have turned on mankind and sparked social unrest, decimating the human population before being largely shut down.

But as our world fell to pieces, a mission began to salvage the legacy of civilization; a group of small creations was given the spark of life by a scientist in the final days of humanity, and they continue to exist post-apocalypse. Another of their own, #9 (voiced by Elijah Wood), emerges and displays leadership qualities that may help them survive and possibly even thrive. The conflicted but resilient tribe already includes #1 (Christopher Plummer), a domineering war veteran and the group's longtime leader; #2 (Martin Landau), a kindly but now-frail inventor; #3 and #4, scholarly twins who communicate nonverbally and mostly with each other; #5 (John C. Reilly), a stalwart and nurturing engineer; #6 (Crispin Glover), an erratic artist beset by visions; #7 (Jennifer Connelly), a brave and self-sufficient warrior; and #8 (Fred Tatasciore), the none-too-bright muscle and enforcer for #1.

With their group so few, these "stitchpunk" creations must summon individual strengths well beyond their own proportions in order to outwit and fight against still-functioning machines, one of which is a marauding mechanized beast. In the darkness just before the dawn, #9 rallies everyone of his number to band together.

While showcasing a stunning "steampunk"-styled visual brilliance, 9 dynamically explores the will to live, the power of community, and how one soul can change the world.

"It's a dream come true," says director Shane Acker of the rare opportunity to expand his Student Academy Award-winning short film into a feature. "I had fallen in love with the world and the characters, and my head was full of ideas of what I would want to do to show more of it, and more of them, as they discovered the world and themselves."

For Acker, the theatrical release of the feature film 9 - on, appropriately enough, September 9th, 2009 (9/9/09) - caps a decade of exploring a world he created. Through the years, from short to feature, his core concepts have remained consistent while also inviting and encouraging creative collaboration and audience interaction.

At the end of the last century, "I had the idea for the character of #9, an innocent who would risk his life for his brethren and use intellect rather than might to slay a beast," he remembers. "I wanted to depict him empathetically, without dialogue. This way, the short film could be universal and accessible, while also challenging the audience to piece the details together in order to understand the whole. I thought that would make for a rewarding filmgoing experience, especially in animated form.

"The design of the short film was inspired by the work of several stop-motion animated masters; Jan vankmajer, the Brothers Quay, and the Lauenstein brothers. In fact, I originally conceived the short as being stop-motion."

At the time, though, Acker was still a student at UCLA, finishing his Masters Degree for Architecture and working towards a second one in Animation - with the short as his thesis film. "I was learning by doing - and, doing while learning. So a stop-motion production on a student budget would have been prohibitive," he explains. "But that had started me thinking, 'What can I use to make these characters out of?' Well, things all around me; bits, pieces, scraps. I imagined a tribe of nomadic beings who carry their possessions - scavenged objects - within themselves.

"They're 'stitchpunk' creations, if you will. That's a term which I first heard coined from a fan of the short film, and I'd say it fittingly describes the characters' aesthetic, in what they physically are and in that they have been designed not as toys but to survive in a barren landscape. I realized that the world they exist in should have real grit and texture, with debris of a past and new life forms rising out of it. For that scenic design, I was inspired by photographs of European cities destroyed in World War II, as well as the fantasy artwork of Zdzislaw Beksinski."

Making the short took four-and-one-half years. Acker remembers, "I would take jobs on-and-off to pay for the cost of living. I went to New Zealand for six months to work on [Peter Jackson's multi-Academy Award-winning The Lord of the Rings:] The Return of the King. That was an amazing learning experience, like animation boot camp."

Being a part of a classic film furthered Acker's own attachments to his characters and storyline. He offers, "#9's tribe is a metaphor for a developing humanity; they possess the power of adaptation and invention. In contrast, the beast that is hunting them is a hunter, made from bones and bits of broken machinery. Yet it desires to assimilate, which is why it is stealing these beings' souls.

"These two species are connected by a talisman, which I imagined as a piece of ancient technology left over from when humans walked the earth. A vessel for capturing and containing the soul of an individual, the talisman was split into two halves, one of which fell into the beast's clutches and the other of which is in the tribe's possession."

The 11-minute short, 9, completed in mid-2004, impressed audiences worldwide with its striking characters, thought-provoking science-fiction concepts, and exciting chase sequences. From one festival to the next, Acker found himself collecting awards for his achievement with 9. But, as the director remembers, "There was a real emotional core, too. What was surprising was how often I would be approached, following screenings, by women or girls who had gotten invested in the character of #9."

As director of the short, Acker received an Academy Award nomination in the Best Animated Short Film category - after having won the Gold Medal (the top prize) at the Student Academy Awards.

Acker reflects that "getting an Academy Award nomination changes your life! I had no idea that the short would go as far as it did, and I felt very blessed and honored. It opened doors, and has allowed me new opportunities to express myself as an artist."

Among the short's early champions - even before the Oscar nomination - were producers Jim Lemley and Dana Ginsburg. "I was mesmerized. It had a timeless concept and rich characters, which all the best fantasy stories share," says Ginsburg.

In the winter of 2005, Lemley, as executive producer of the hit thriller Red Eye, was in the middle of a nighttime shooting schedule on the movie. At 3:00 AM one "day," he was able to catch up on some submissions materials. He remembers, "My assistant at the time, Lee Clay, had been telling me for at least a week, 'You need to look at this thing called 9. So I picked up the DVD copy, put it on, and sat at my desk to sign some papers. I turned to look at the screen, and by the end my jaw was on the floor. I watched it again and again. Shane was conveying humanity through things that aren't even human.

"Three days later, I was meeting with Shane. I asked him where the world he had created came from, and he started to outline the mythology. Within the week, I was funding development of the feature out of my own pocket."

Two directors whose work has pushed moviemaking boundaries soon joined forces with Lemley to get 9 made.

Tim Burton notes, "The short was among the most extraordinary 11 minutes of film I've ever seen. Shane's conception was and is a stunningly detailed and hauntingly beautiful universe that resonates not only visually but emotionally."

Timur Bekmambetov adds, "As a viewer, Shane's short hooked me, so I wanted to hear the end of the story - and what happened before. I sought to help Shane and support his vision of an epic, meaningful, and entertaining movie."

Screenwriter Pamela Pettler, who has collaborated several times with Burton, was enlisted to work with Acker to expand his story and canvas. She states, "I absolutely felt that this short could become a full-length feature and a great adventure movie, since animation is a marvelous art form. Fundamentally, this is a universal story about a world not defined by country or race; there is struggle, but it is about hope and optimism."

Acker notes, "We now had the opportunity to explore the world from the perspective of these beings but also to get at the back story; to get to 'post-apocalyptic,' there had to be a 'pre-apocalyptic.' The crux of that is, everyone was told 'The Glorious Future Is Ours,' but it all went awry

"So we were able to delve deeper into why the world ended up the way it did, what happened to the humans, and the extent of hope. These creations ultimately have to look into the past to ascertain just who they are - why they are -- and how they can again move forward. So while we're bringing people into a fantasy world with a different sensibility, they're on an emotional journey with characters who are very human in their emotions and interactions."

Pettler began work on the screenplay in mid-2005. Lemley comments, "She and Shane worked closely together for six months. They would visit each other's homes constantly."

The screenwriter remembers, "We had large boards up, showing the characters - Shane came up with wonderful renderings of the beast! - and listing the major story points. We did up an artistic outline in addition to a written one.

"I love collaborating with people who think as visually as Shane does. The way we created this universe was, he would free-associate and I would shape it so that the characters had emotional depth and the story was consistent."

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'9' (2009)(Focus Features)

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