'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."

See Also: '9' - Using Pieces Of The Past To Build An Animated Future / A Brand-New Trailer For Tim Burton's 9 / Is Fox Planning To Re-Boot The Planet Of The Apes? / Jennifer Connelly - An Abundance Of Talent Can Make The Earth Stand Still / The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (2007)(Disney) / The Nightmare Before Christmas: Rare Behind The Scenes Photos / The Nightmare Before Christmas: Never Before Seen Concept Drawings / Actress Profile - Christina Ricci /

'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."

See Also: A Brand-New Trailer For Tim Burton's 9 / Is Fox Planning To Re-Boot The Planet Of The Apes? / Jennifer Connelly - An Abundance Of Talent Can Make The Earth Stand Still / The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (2007)(Disney) / The Nightmare Before Christmas: Rare Behind The Scenes Photos / The Nightmare Before Christmas: Never Before Seen Concept Drawings / Actress Profile - Christina Ricci /

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!"

See Also: Is Fox Planning To Re-Boot The Planet Of The Apes? / Jennifer Connelly - An Abundance Of Talent Can Make The Earth Stand Still / The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (2007)(Disney) / The Nightmare Before Christmas: Rare Behind The Scenes Photos / The Nightmare Before Christmas: Never Before Seen Concept Drawings / Actress Profile - Christina Ricci /

The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008)(20th Century Fox)

Source: 20th Century Fox

In THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, a contemporary reinvention of the 1951 science fiction classic, renowned scientist Dr. Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly) finds herself face to face with an alien called Klaatu (Keanu Reeves), who travels across the universe to warn of an impending global crisis.

When forces beyond Helen’s control treat the extraterrestrial as a hostile and deny his request to address the world’s leaders, she and her estranged stepson Jacob (Jaden Smith) quickly discover the deadly ramifications of Klaatu’s claim that he is “a friend to the Earth.”

Now Helen must find a way to convince the entity who was sent to destroy us that mankind is worth saving – but it may be too late.

The process has begun.

Mankind has long been fascinated by the possibility of life beyond Earth. Science fiction literature and films have served to not only entertain, but to address our questions, hopes and fears about extraterrestrial life. Such speculation has captivated our collective imagination and inspired the development of new technology to explore the farthest reaches of our universe and the very real possibility that we are not alone.

One of the most original and innovative films of the genre is the 1951 sci-fi classic "The Day The Earth Stood Still," a truly groundbreaking movie that has influenced generations of sci-fi enthusiasts, authors and filmmakers. Directed by legendary filmmaker Robert Wise, the film tells the story of a benevolent, human-looking alien called Klaatu, who lands his spaceship in Washington D.C. with the goal of meeting with the leaders of Earth to warn that the violence that man is committing against man actually threatens the survival of other civilizations in the universe. With the help of Gort, his giant robotic bodyguard, Klaatu eludes the authorities who attempt to capture him and immerses himself in human culture to gain a better understanding of a species that seems committed to conflict and destruction. He befriends a widow and her son, and through the prism of their friendship he learns much about humanity - and ultimately challenges mankind to be its best version of itself.

The film was revolutionary, not only in its then-cutting edge conceptualization of aliens, spaceships and robots, but in its audacious variation on a familiar allegory for the escalating tensions of the early Cold War era. "The entire canon of science fiction in America in the Fifties was constructed in such a way as to reinforce Western fears of the Eastern Bloc," notes producer Erwin Stoff. "The 'other' to be feared was always a metaphor for Communism. What was remarkable about 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' was that it placed the onus of responsibility on everyone equally. The 'other' to fear was ourselves - the nature of man and the terrible violence that humanity is capable of."

Another aspect of the film that sets it apart is the perspective from which it unfolds. "One of the really unique things about the story is that it's told from the alien's point of view," Stoff observes. "We've seen a lot of movies about aliens, but rarely do we see ourselves as the aliens."

The idea of remaking "The Day the Earth Stood Still" first struck Stoff, who has managed Reeves for over 20 years, in the wake of their success on the 1994 blockbuster "Speed." During a meeting with at Twentieth Century Fox studios, Stoff noticed a poster for the classic film hanging on the wall. "I said, 'Forget about the project I came here to talk to you about. What we should do is develop 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' with Keanu playing Klaatu,'" he remembers. "It seemed like a great idea, but for one reason or another, it didn't happen. Then, as destiny would have it, a draft showed up on my doorstep twelve years later."

As re-conceived by screenwriter David Scarpa and director Scott Derrickson, the premise for the 2008 version of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL is rooted not in man's violence against man, but in mankind's destruction of the Earth's environment. "I'm a tremendous fan of the original film," Derrickson says. "It was so interesting and original and progressive for its time - in the visual effects, in the way it commented on the Cold War tensions of that era, in the idea of seeing humanity from an outsider's perspective. It's a truly great film, but most modern audiences haven't seen it. I feel like people deserve to know this story, and this was a fantastic opportunity to retell it in a way that addresses the issues and conflicts that are affecting us now."

"There is nothing the original film says about the nature of mankind that isn't every bit as timely and relevant to this generation of movie audiences," Stoff believes. "It's the specifics of the way we now have the capability to destroy ourselves that have changed. The evidence that we are doing potentially irreparable harm to the environment is pretty irrefutable. The challenges that we face today are no less daunting, and if we fail at them, no less lethal, than the ones that we faced before the end of the Cold War."

"In re-imagining this picture, we had an opportunity to capture a real kind of angst that people are living with today, a very present concern that the way we are living may have disastrous consequences for the planet," says Reeves. "I feel like this movie is responding to those anxieties. It's holding a mirror up to our relationship with nature and asking us to look at our impact on the planet, for the survival of our species and others."

For Derrickson, the project is the unforeseen culmination of a close encounter he enjoyed with Robert Wise as a film student, when he made a short film that was accepted to a festival in Indiana where the legendary director was being honored. At a private dinner with Wise arranged by the festival's program director, Derrickson asked the two-time Oscar® winner if he had any advice for him as a young filmmaker. "He told me that if I was interested in genre films, then I should make my first film a horror film, because a horror film will really show what you can do as a director," Derrickson says. "I kept that in mind, and it was one of the reasons why I made [the successful horror film] 'The Exorcism of Emily Rose' as my first film. But I had no idea that I would be sitting here one day talking about re-imagining his great film 'The Day the Earth Stood Still.'"

"A lot of my enthusiasm for getting involved with this project and wanting Keanu to be part of it was the fact that I had seen 'The Exorcism of Emily Rose' and was completely knocked out by Scott as a director," Stoff says. "There is a thriller element to this film, a real sense of danger about Klaatu. You're not sure what he's going to do next, or how far he's going to take things. Scott is a masterful storyteller in terms of creating that kind of tension and mystery and danger."

As the representative of a group of alien civilizations that have suffered their own painful evolution in the wake of cataclysmic climate change, Klaatu travels to Earth with the intention of exterminating what he and his peers view as an imminent threat to a planet that is too uniquely abundant to be compromised. "The situation has reached a crisis point where the life of the planet itself is at stake because the humans are killing it," Reeves says. "Klaatu comes to Earth to assess whether or not human beings are capable of changing their behavior, or if 'the problem' needs to be eliminated."

It is Klaatu's intention to speak to the world's leaders at the United Nations before taking any drastic action, but when he is denied that opportunity, it simply reinforces his perception of human beings as inherently barbaric and resistant to change. "Klaatu comes to Earth with a pretty negative view of humanity," says Derrickson. "He has certain ideas about our destructiveness and our reluctance to change, and his impressions of us based on his initial experiences here don't do anything to change that opinion."

Despite his preconceived notions about mankind, Klaatu approaches his mission with an eerie detachment. "There was a take that Keanu did one day that really freaked me out," says Oscar-winner Kathy Bates ("Misery"), who portrays the U.S. secretary of defense. "I don't know what happened, but his eyes just went black. It was a magical moment and I saw it up close and personal. For those few moments, he transformed himself into this other creature that wasn't human at all. I'll never forget it."

"I tried to bring objectivity to the character and the way he observes everything around him," Reeves says. "There is a kind of compression to Klaatu. He is an alien entity contained in a human body, and when he is looking out of that body, he is just looking out. But over the course of the film, he is gradually affected by the people around him and, he experiences what it means to be human, and to have hope."

For More Information On "The Day The Earth Stood Still" (2008) Please Read:

Keanu Reeves - Taking On The Iconic Role Of Klaatu
Jennifer Connelly - An Abundance Of Talent Can Make The Earth Stand Still
The Day The Earth Stood Still - About The Production
The First Photos From The Day The Earth Stood Still
A New Promotional Banner For The Day The Earth Stood Still

To Learn About Original "The Day The Earth Stood Still" (1951) Please Read:

The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)(20th Century Fox)
Klaatu Escapes!!
UFO Lands On Earth!!

The Day The Earth Stood Still - About The Production

Source: 20th Century Fox

Director Scott Derrickson's stylistic approach to the making of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL was informed by the example set by filmmaker Robert Wise, who directed the original film. "One of things I've always respected about Robert Wise is that there isn't really a 'Robert Wise style,'" Derrickson says. "He didn't impart his style on a film. He put the story first and then built a style out of that story. For this film, I tried to establish a process with the crew that would create a style that serves the story the best way possible."

This process was led by an intensive collaboration between Derrickson, production designer David Brisbin, director of photography David Tattersall and their talented teams of artists and artisans. Like the science and technology that powers the story, Derrickson and company grounded their design concepts in the real world. "We wanted to make a film that had a stylish look and a distinctive quality in terms of color, lighting and set design, but we didn't want to push the boundaries of reality too far," the director says. "The film is expressionistic and stylish, but we tried to root it in reality so that you don't feel as though you are watching a comic book movie or a graphic novel movie."

The first key step in Derrickson's process of conceptualizing the look of the film was developing a color palette. "He is obsessed with color," says Brisbin, who previously worked with Derrickson on "The Exorcism of Emily Rose." "It's very important to Scott to find a color code for the whole film and be very rigorous about how it's applied. You can have an enormous football stadium set and there'll be one red tomato far on the other side, and he'll say, 'David! What's that red doing there? We don't do red.'"

"I think color is one of the most effective aspects of cinema," Derrickson explains. "When I think of movies I love, the color palette of the film is inextricable from the film itself. I think about 'GoodFellas' and that movie was green and a dark maroon red. 'Taxi Driver' was this kind of dirty taxi yellow color. There's a certain palette control in really good films that becomes part of your memory and what you take away from them in the end."

Derrickson applied a similar discipline to the selection of the color palette for THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. Together with Brisbin and Tattersall, he compiled an eclectic batch of images for inspiration, and ultimately boiled the collection down to twenty stills that form the tabula rasa for the film. "I don't like too many colors in the frame, and at the same time, I don't like a wash of just one color," says the director. "We went through each scene and talked about controlling and compressing the palette in a way that feels real and yet immerses the audience within these particular colors for the duration of the film so that when it's over, you're left with an indelible impression of what they film looked like."

This yielded a design scheme anchored by one or two colors per set - primarily blue-green and orange - with the rest of each environment bathed in neutral tones. "The Flash Chamber is a good example of how we compressed our palette," says Brisbin, describing the converted missile silo in which Gort, Klaatu's massive bio-mechanical bodyguard, is subjected to a battery of diagnostic tests by military technicians. "Among the twenty images we settled on was a photograph of a gray field with orange lava flowing through it. The orange is very bright, almost livid. We decided that these two colors - gray and orange - would be our 'zone' for the Flash Chamber.

"It's a pretty complicated matrix to hit the color marks that Scott is after and still keep everything looking real," Brisbin elaborates. "The great thing about collaborating with Scott on design and color issues is that he wants to arrive at a very specific and controlled destination, but he wants the process of getting there to be intensely collaborative. That's really as good as it gets for a designer."

Another important facet to achieving the realistic look Derrickson envisioned was in the processing of the film itself. (The director opted to shoot on film, rather than in HD.) "We did a 'pull process,' which has the effect of reducing the contrast slightly," says Tattersall. "It makes the colors a little bit more subtle and pastel-y, if you will. That's a new thing for me."

Self-described film buffs Derrickson and Tattersall spent hours discussing shots, composition and camera movement in determining their shooting style for the film. Rather than apply one particular style to the entire movie, they formulated their visual approach on a scene-by-scene basis, depending on what each moment of the story called for. "Different sequences felt like they needed to be shot differently, so the shooting style changes throughout the film," Derrickson says. "There are some scenes that we shot with long lenses, some scenes that we shot very static and other scenes that were shot with wide lenses and the camera never stops moving. We tried to create symmetry between sequences so the result is a cohesive tapestry of styles within the film."

"Our approach is sort of classic old-school cinematography mixed with a lot of state-of-the-art technology," says Tattersall, who utilized rear-screen projection and painted backdrops in lieu of green screen and CG visual effects whenever possible.

"David Tattersall can bring a set to life like nobody's business," Brisbin attests. "He is a master at lighting, at taking good foreground scenery and a painted background and using old school techniques to give it depth and dimension."

Tattersall's enthusiasm for traditional methods of stagecraft and his expertise at lighting indoor sets standing in for exterior locations played a crucial role in the production. Filming took place in Vancouver, which doubled for New York, in January through March 2007. The difficulties of shooting in Canada in the middle of winter with unpredictable weather - and a script that calls for multiple night exteriors and special effects like snow, fog, wind and rain - prompted the filmmakers to mount some of the exterior scenes on soundstages, ensuring greater control over lighting, blocking and environmental factors.

The incredibly lifelike outdoor settings constructed on stages by Brisbin's art department include a forest, a swamp and a snow-covered mountain ridge. "I depended heavily on my greensmen and my construction team and we were generally able to make things believable," says Brisbin, "but we would not have been able to pull it off if it weren't for our cinematographer. He's a visual genius and a fantastic collaborator." (Like Tattersall, Brisbin has previous experience creating believable night exteriors on interior stages - his first effort was constructing a realistic outdoor campfire setting for a pivotal night scene between Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix in "My Own Private Idaho.")

Weather is a significant factor in the story, all of which had to be manufactured by the special effects department (with CGI enhancements where necessary) and adhere to Derrickson's desire for realism. "What I'm going to remember most about working on THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL is the smell of the fog," Jaden Smith says. "It was horrible."

As part of Twentieth Century Fox parent company News Corp.'s corporate mandate to become a carbon-neutral company by the year 2010, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL was chosen to be the studio's first green production. "For the first time ever, I found myself working with a studio to find ways of being more efficient in the work we do in the art department and less wasteful," says Brisbin, whose team typically uses "mountains and mountains" of paper in printing, especially location photo stills.

For this production, the art department transitioned to a digital approach, posting photos on a website that could be accessed by other departments as needed, thereby cutting down additional printing and paper waste. Meanwhile, Brisbin's scenic painters, construction crew and set dressers used recyclable materials and biodegradable products whenever possible in the creation of sets and props. When it was necessary to use lumber, it was sourced from sustainably-managed forests.

Costume designer Tish Monaghan's team also adapted from paper printing or taking Polaroids to using digital photography for wardrobe fittings. Efforts were also made to use more environmentally-conscious solvents and dyes, and to recycle garment bags and hangars and other items that are often thrown away after filming. When principal photography wrapped, all of the wardrobe that was purchased for the film (or re-purposed from another show) was either given to Fox to be utilized by future productions, or donated to men's and women's shelters.

Much attention was also focused on fuel efficiency through the use of hybrid vehicles, substituting biodiesel for fossil fuels in the generators, and strict enforcement of the "idle-free mandate" - if any member of the crew found themselves sitting in their production vehicle for more than three minutes, they had to turn off the engine. Energy-efficient appliances were also used to conserve electricity.

"Everybody on the crew dug into it with zealousness," says visual effects producer Jeff Okun of the collective effort. "It's really exciting to be involved in making a movie about saving the world, and at the same time, taking steps to make sure we leave a zero footprint."

See Also: The First Photos From The Day The Earth Stood Still / A New Promotional Banner For The Day The Earth Stood Still

The First Photos From The Day The Earth Stood Still

Source: 20th Century Fox

(Photo Above) The arrival of an enormous orb in New York's Central Park triggers a global upheaval in "The Day the Earth Stood Still." Photo credit: WETA

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL is 20th Century Fox’s contemporary reinvention of its 1951 classic. Keanu Reeves portrays Klaatu, an alien whose arrival on our planet triggers a global upheaval. As governments and scientists race to unravel the mystery behind the visitor’s appearance, a woman (Jennifer Connelly) and her young stepson get caught up in his mission – and come to understand the ramifications of Klaatu calling himself a “friend to the Earth.”

The swarm destroys everything in its path in THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. Photo credit: WETA

The arrival of an enormous orb in New York's Central Park triggers a global upheaval in "The Day the Earth Stood Still." Photo credit: WETA

Keanu Reeves stars as Klaatu, an alien whose arrival on our planet triggers a global upheaval in THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. Photo credit: Doane Gregory

Jennifer Connelly as Dr. Helen Benson and Keanu Reeves as Klaatu in THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. Photo credit: Doane Gregory

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL

Science Fiction – Thriller

Release: December 12

Director: Scott Derrickson

Screenplay by: David Scarpa, based on the screenplay by Edmund H. North

Producers: Erwin Stoff, Paul Boardman, Gregory Goodman

Cast: Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connolly, Jaden Smith, John Cleese, Jon Hamm, Kyle Chandler, and Kathy Bates

See Also: A New Promotional Banner For The Day The Earth Stood Still