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16 Short Films Turned Feature Films (And the Filmmakers Who Made it Happen)
By: 
Adam Quigley Posted: December 23, 2009
Adam Quigley Posted: December 23, 2009
Full Disclosure: This is a sponsored feature for the movie "9", which hits DVD and Blu-ray on Dec 29. The author was granted complete creative control over the topic and content, so long as it related to said movie. To avoid any potential conflict of interest, no opinions in regards to that particular film will be asserted.
Cinema is a fascinating and unique medium. Beyond providing an almost limitless outlet for creative visions to be expressed both visually and aurally––the result of which is a collaborative effort of some of the world's most wonderfully anomalous artistic careers (cinematography, editing, sound design, and so on)––it has also opened itself up to such a varied, expansive development process that many films now offer us the opportunity to examine how well they fared in transitioning from one distinctive medium to another. This is seen most commonly with film adaptions of books (Lord of the Rings), comic books (The Dark Knight), short stories (Minority Report), video games (Resident Evil), stage plays (Frost/Nixon), and musicals (Chicago).
In more rare instances though, a filmmaker is granted the opportunity to stay within their medium, but do so while extensively expanding the concept and scope of their original vision, and in turn, a floodgate of possibilities are opened in terms of what can be achieved in that medium. You can experience this expansion of creativity for yourself by watching the below videos, which acted as the bases for some of cinema's most celebrated feature films.
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Much like the misconception that Tim Burton directed Coraline and The Nightmare Before Christmas, the notion that Burton was the creative impetus behind 9 has become another widespread assumption that's unfairly taken credit away from the true visionary behind the film's otherworldly inception. The actual man behind the curtain is Shane Acker, a UCLA student who worked on and off for four and a half years to create the short film featured above (which received an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short Film). Tim Burton's involvement didn't come until later, when he saw the short at a film festival and was so impressed by it that he helped have it produced into the feature-length production that we know today. You can also watch Acker's short (in much higher quality, I might add) on the DVD or Blu-ray.
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Tim Burton isn't the only renowned director that's helped to jump-start the career of an up-and-coming filmmaker. Without Peter Jackson acting as a producer, District 9 wouldn't even exist. Jackson originally used 'Alive in Joberg' to convince 20th Century Fox that writer/director Neill Blomkamp was the right man to take on the Halo movie, but when that project fell through, they turned their efforts to adapting Blomkamp's short into a feature. Retaining many of the same elements of the short film, from the mockumentary style to the apartheid themes to even the inclusion of mech suits, District 9's origins are clearly evident in Blomkamp's original 6-minute production. The primary difference is the addition of a somewhat more formal narrative structure, with Sharlto Copley (also in the short) being granted a leading role.
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Despite being shafted in the theatrical release department, the deliciously fun and darkly comedic horror anthology Trick 'r Treat has been developing a cult following since the moment in hit DVD. The film, which was produced by X2 and Superman Returns director Bryan Singer (anybody notice a running theme here?), was written & directed by frequent Singer collaborator Michael Dougherty, who co-wrote both of the aforementioned superhero films. But prior to Dougherty being able to finally complete his passion project, he used the animated short film form as an outlet to introduce Sam, the creepy burlap sack-wearing trick-or-treater that would eventually tie each of the stories together in Trick 'r Treat.
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Saw is currently the second highest grossing horror franchise of all time, and with each passing year, the series' box office intake continues to grow. Its path to finding that success was an elaborate one, however, starting with the completion of the first film's screenplay. Intending to pitch the film to studios, colleagues James Wan and Leigh Whannell decided to take an excerpt from the script and shoot it with almost no budget. After screening the film at Lions Gate, the studio accepted the deal almost immediately, and Wan and Whannell received a budget of $1.2 million to make their film. At the time, the intention was that it would be a direct-to-DVD release, but after a positive reaction at the Sundance Film Festival, Lions Gate decided to give it a worldwide theatrical release. Aside from a few obvious differences, the scene that the short film was made from remained mostly intact for the finished film.
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Before the filmmakers of Saw used their short film as a means to convince studios to provide them with finacing for their low budget horror picture, Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell did that very same thing with their short entitled "Within the Woods". Shot on Super 8 mm film, the short was shown as a double billing with The Rocky Horror Picture Show, where a critic saw it and gave it a highly positive review. That review would eventually become one of the determining factors of their receiving funding for the feature-length version of the film, which was called The Evil Dead and has since amassed a huge following. The origins of many of the film's classic scenes can be found in the short, making it a "must watch" for all Evil Dead fans.
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Disillusioned after his experiences in Hollywood working on the screenplay for RoboCop 3, Sin City creator Frank Miller decided against releasing the film rights to his beloved graphic novel series. That is, until Robert Rodriguez changed Miller's mind, convincing him he was capable of faithfully recreating the books with a 'proof of concept' adaptation of the Sin City short "The Customer is Always Right". That 'proof of concept' short eventually went on to become the opening scene of Sin City.
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Office Space didn't mark the first appearance of everyone's favorite mumbling, stapler-yearning employee, Milton Waddams. He was initially introduced in animated form, through a series of animated shorts that aired on Saturday Night Live in the mid 1990s. These shorts also marked the first appearance of Bill Lumbergh, Office Space's hilarious but incredibly agitating boss character. Though both of these characters were given only supporting roles in the movie, their influence is readily apparent, with the short included above being an almost exact duplicate of one of its scenes, as well as a direct reflection of the film's tone.
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Like almost all of the projects featured in this article, Bottle Rocket's evolution from short film into feature had a lot to do with luck. Family friend and screenwriter L.M. Kit Carson (Paris, Texas) saw the short and, in addition to submitting it to Sundance, sent a copy of the film and its script to Terms of Endearment writer/director/producer James L. Brooks. Dozens of meetings later, Bottle Rocket was optioned by Columbia Pictures as a feature film. Think of how differently things might've turned out if the low budget nature of the short hadn't restricted Wes Anderson from casting established actors, which is what lead to brothers Owen Wilson and Luke Wilson (who prior to the film had never been in a movie before) receiving the starring roles.
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Made in two days for under $500, the 9-minute, black-and-white short film "Peluca" also starred Jon Heder in the title role, but under the character name Seth. The character that later became Pedro was named Giel. Despite not being able to utilize the same vibrant color pallete featured in Napoleon Dyanmite, it's stylistically very similar, sharing familiar camera shots and an awkward sense of humor. Many of the scenes in Peluca are reminiscent of ones that were later used in Napoleon Dyanmite.
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Boogie Nights may have been Paul Thomas Anderson's breakout film, but it was actually his second time tackling the Dirk Diggler character (who was inspired by John Holmes). In high school, he made a 30-minute black-and-white mockumentary about Diggler called, appropriately, "The Dirk Diggler Story". This short was the basis for the first draft of Boogie Nights. Other familiar characters that make appearances include Diggler's best friend Reed Rothchild and director Jack Horner. Fun fact: the voiceover narration is delivered by PTA's father.
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It was during a screening for this short (featuring the elongated and decidedly more unweildy title, "Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB") that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg first met. Spielberg was blown away by it. It also lead to, with the assistance of close friend and director Francis Ford Copolla, Lucas receiving a multi-picture deal with Paramount that allowed him to make it into a feature. The similarities between the two films can be seen mostly clearly in THX 1138's third act, which portray roughly the same events.
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Adapted from Billy Bob Thorton's play of the same name, the black-and-white "Some Folks Call it a Sling Blade" basically took a chunk of the play and turned it into a short film. That short later garnered enough success to allow Thornton to direct a feature-length adaptation of his play. The first act of Sling Blade is more or less the same as the entirety of the short film, though the portrayal of Karl Childers (played by Billy Bob Thornton in both) and the woman who interviews him (Molly Ringwald in the short, oddly enough) seem to have been altered in Sling Blade to convey a more welcoming atmosphere.
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WARNING: NSFW
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Winning 14 awards at international film festivals and earning an Oscar nomination for Live Action Short Film in 2006, Sean Ellis' short film "Cashback" can virtually be seen in its unedited entirety within the feature adaptation of the same name, which he spent a mere seven days expanding the script for. Since all of the key players were able to return for the feature, using the same footage didn't pose a problem.
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Not interested in fighting his way through the Hollywood system, Kerry Conran spent four years putting together a black-and-white teaser trailer for the film using only a bluescreen in his room and an old Macintosh. He spent an additional two years working on the screenplay, and was able to use the short to convince a prominent Italian producer to finance the film, despite it not having a distributer.
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This 'proof of concept' collection of action sequences--animatics drawn by the film's writer/director--isn't really a short film, admittedly, but as an example of a filmmaker using a short project as a means of convincing a studio to finance his films, it more than fits the recurring theme of this article.
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Again, I'm cheating. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut was adapted from the South Park TV show, not these shorts. That said, these shorts (both entitled "The Spirit of Christmas") did lead to the development of the show, so by the transitive property, it still counts. The first short was animated using only construction paper, glue and a very old 8 mm film camera. A Fox executive named Brian Graden saw the short and paid its creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, to make another animated short as a video Christmas card that he could send to friends. One of the friends that ended up seeing the film was George Clooney, who purportedly found it so hilarious that he started passing it around on the internet. The short eventually got passed around so much that it caught the attention of Comedy Central, and the rest is history.
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Raising Victor Vargas (written & directed by Peter Sollett)
Dan Trachtenberg from The Totally Rad Show recommended this short film (entitled "Five Feet High and Rising"), which won the Short Filmmaking Award at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. Both the short and the movie that evolved from it, Raising Victor Vargas, follow a teenager living in New York City's Lower East Side. Many of the actors from the short remained the same for the feature.
9 Days of "9"
Brought to you by "9", a film from visionary filmmakers Tim Burton (The Night Before Christmas) and Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted). Own it on Blu-ray™, DVD, & Digital Download. For more "9" click here.
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1 Comment
Great article. Ive always
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