Monster Island News: "9"

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'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."

'9' - Using Pieces Of The Past To Build An Animated Future

Source: Focus Features

The landscape of the futuristic animated feature, "9", that the characters exist in, and are trying to figure out their past and find their future in, is "filled with things that are hauntingly familiar to us all," says director Shane Acker. "But it's also as if the Industrial Revolution had been allowed to progress for hundreds of years, and we never got past that steam-powered design sensibility."

That very sensibility has picked up momentum in recent years through the "steampunk" aesthetic that marries functional and custom-made invention to Victorian-era design. According to Ruth La Ferla in The New York Times [May 8th, 2008], it "is the aesthetic expression of a time-traveling fantasy world...inspired by the extravagantly inventive age of dirigibles and steam locomotives, brass diving bells and jar-shaped protosubmarines."

As writer Pamela Pettler reports, "Shane had in mind industrial icons of mid-century Europe. There's a very strong derivation from those in 9."

Production designer Robert St. Pierre adds, "The science of alchemy plays a pivotal role in the story and in the production design. Jules Verne was also an inspiration."

Acker notes, "Verne's world has definitely influenced 'steampunk,' which is a celebration of mechanisms and an idolization or faith in machines as a future, and which emphasizes analog over digital. But in 9, since the world has fallen to pieces it's become all analog."

Art director Christophe Vacher notes that, given the movie's "post-apocalyptic environment, not only did we have to create things, we also had to age them, weather them, and sometimes destroy them!"

Acker elaborates, "The world of 9 is composed of what was discarded and what was left behind, so some things have become anachronistic and outdated.

"Each member of the group has clear visual ties to the humans' past. For example, #1 has asserted his leadership status with a coin atop his head, and he swaddles himself in a piece of red velvet. This tribe exists - and its members and their adapted culture are maturing - in a post-human environment."

Actor Elijah Wood (#9) notes, "The whole group now tries to find out who they are and where they came from, and to overcome what they are afraid of."

As director, Acker found he had to modify his working methods for the feature, since he was now overseeing dozens of people as opposed to previously occasionally working with two or three. He admits, "I was constantly saying, 'Oh, I can do that myself' or 'Let me just take that.' It naturally took a while for people to get acclimated to this world I'd set up and created. I would explain the rules for these characters, this world, and the philosophy of this world - and then our crew could run with it all.

"When you're doing animation, you're so close to it that it can be hard to take a critical distance from the work. Working with a team, there's always people around to see the work in new ways and to bounce ideas off of. All of the amazing artists who have come onto the project have brought so much to it that I couldn't have by myself. It's been a tremendous collaborative effort."

One collaborator, supervising animator Kristin Solid, had, like Tatasciore and Ksander, been at UCLA "at the same time Shane was there. He and I would comment on each other's films, and I even spent a little time working on the original short, doing some lighting. For the most part, he did that whole thing himself!

"Shane is very loyal and made sure to have people working on 9 that he has confidence in. They must be talented and be able to get him what he needs, because Shane and Joe Ksander expect the best from everybody, including themselves."

Acker adds, "The good thing about directing the feature was that I didn't have to worry about technological hurdles; we had a whole team that I could rely on to work out those challenges. This way, I could concentrate on the challenges of the story and characters."

Co-producer Jinko Gotoh remarks, "Everyone was proud to be working on a film that is set apart from any other animated feature out there. Our crew size was smaller, so each individual was responsible for more of an output; seven feet of film was animated weekly, as opposed to the more typical five."

Producer Jim Lemley comments, "What I learned on this movie is just how much animators put into the characters. It's their personality, their skill, and their artistry that goes into the characters. They are acting, too; they are actors overseen and directed by Shane. Combine their performances with the actors' voiceovers, and you've got universal human truths and emotions coming through these characters."

Story artist Regina Conroy admits, "It was an emotional experience every day when we worked, going through the gamut of what these characters are feeling."

Acker elaborates, "The actors deliver the subtleties of the dialogue, while the animators deliver the performance. We shot video footage of the actors, even when they were sitting around a table, and the animators used that for reference. This way, they could take those qualities that the actors had conveyed and apply them consistently throughout. Every character was distilled down to its vitals."

Supervising animator Charlie Bonifacio says, "The footage was so interesting to watch. Shane pointed out to us some takes where Christopher Plummer would be readying to speak, so we put in that detail of #1's mouth to start moving even before Christopher's voiceover comes on; #1 is preparing to say what he's going to say."

Ksander reveals, "In addition to Elijah Wood, there's some Shane Acker in #9; a great big grin that can break out on Shane's face found its way onto #9's face too."

Bonifacio comments, "From Jennifer Connelly, the animators recreated for #7 the head tilts that Jennifer has, and the way that she would stand between takes."

Ksander adds, "I would work with Shane closely after he and the art team had done character design. We would discuss which specifics I would be conveying to the animators. We had animators who worked their butts off to get onscreen the most subtle facial twitch and the shadow falling across that face.

"But it's not just sitting down and moving keys around on a computer. We would also shoot video reference footage of ourselves acting, because there were lots of little things you would need to keep in mind before sketching or animating; studying the weight of a staff in someone's hands, for instance. Mirrors were stationed at animators' desks for them to glance into while they were working on their computers, for quick references to facial expressions or saying words. Since #3 and #4 have no dialogue at all, it was up to the animators to come up with those performances entirely; for those two characters, we were inspired by meerkats and silent film actors."

Solid notes, "We had to make sure to get everything into the time frame we had for the shot, and that meant us doing everything from acting out lines to clambering around - for which we piled up a bunch of office furniture to simulate a junk pile."

Supervising animator Adam Beck elaborates, "In looking at the sequence we were working on, we would listen to the dialogue and really try to put ourselves in that situation or scenario; how and what would this character do? All the time, we were keeping in mind our talks with Shane about who the characters were. A reference point for #1 was a Shakespearean-actor quality. For #2, it's almost as if he was the others' grandfather.

"Aside from the complex action sequences involving monster machines, the biggest challenge for the crew was to make these little beings full of emotion and life. I think we did so."

Ksander concurs, "That's what I'm personally most proud of, how we were able to pull the characters together; while animating them, we discovered a lot of who they were and where they were going. Through all the characters, we are telling a story."

Wood says, "I'm so excited to have been a part of 9, because there's much more to animation feature filmmaking that goes beyond the mold people too often put it into."

Ultimately, Lemley feels that "9 will resonate with audiences; you will be entertained and, as in the best fantasy adventures, you will feel that you are part of a whole new world."

A Brand-New Trailer For Tim Burton's 9

Written By: Ken Hulsey
Sources: Quiet Earth / Avery Guerra

Tim Burton has lent his talents to yet another animated feature, which from the trailer, looks a lot like cross between "Nightmare Before Christmas" and "The Terminator." This, of course, should have Burton fans jumping up-and-down with ecstasy.

The film, which is called "9", is a post-apocalyptic adventure directed by Shane Acker and produced by Burton and Timur Bekmambetov.

"9" features a real all-star cast of "A" list actors who have signed on to voice the films characters. That list includes Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly, Elijah Wood, Crispin Glover, Christopher Plummer, and Martin Landau.

Here the official synopsis:

When 9 first comes to life, he finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world. All humans are gone, and it is only by chance that he discovers a small community of others like him taking refuge from fearsome machines that roam the earth intent on their extinction. Despite being the neophyte of the group, 9 convinces the others that hiding will do them no good. They must take the offensive if they are to survive, and they must discover why the machines want to destroy them in the first place. As they’ll soon come to learn, the very future of civilization may depend on them.

Looks like a "can't miss hit!"