New Animated Film 9 Adapted from 2005 Short
Fans of Burton's Coraline, the Corpse Bride, will Enjoy New Movie
Sep 6, 2009
Test Screenings of the new animated film 9 by director Shane Acker and producer Tim Burton have been favorable. The computer-animated film is an adaptation of a shorter work which won several awards.
9 -The Film
The story centers around a rag doll-like being named 9. He is the 9th and last of a series of little creatures called stitchpunks who were created by a scientist and live in a ruined , post-apocalyptic world. He is stalked and hunted by a mechanical monster called The Cat Beast, who steals the souls of the stitchpunks and keeps them in a container, then skins their bodies for clothing. Alone after the capture of his one-eyed friend 5, 9 attempts to trick the Cat Beast and retrieve the canister that contains the souls of his friends.
In addition to the Cat Beast, several other mechanical monsters appear such as The Winged Beast, with a mouth made of moveable blades, the Seamstress, a snake-like machine, the Fabrication Machine, a pod-shaped creation with many arms, and several Mech Walkers. The film has a dark, post-apocalyptic atmosphere, and has been rated PG-13 for violence and scary images.
9-The Original Short
The original short took over four years to create. It was directed and produced by Shane Acker and was distributed by Attitude Studios in 2005. The film won several awards including Student Academy Award, Gold Award for Animation, SIGGRAPH-Best in Show, and Animex First Prize, 3D Character Animation. The creative storyline and outstanding animation caught the interest of commercial filmmakers, who believed the short could be expanded into a film-length movie.
The Stitchpunk Characters
The main characters in the upcoming film, known as stitchpunks, will be played by lead voice actors.
- 1: the leader, clever and domineering, clothing fastened by metal snaps (Christopher Plummer)2: the kind old inventor, likes to make things from garbage, skin notted with strings (Martin Landau)
- 3 and 4: twins who are shy and unable to speak, use flickering lights for communication, look as if made of gardening gloves (no speaking role)
- 5: the healer, tutor and mechanic, missing on eye, skin fastened by buttons (John C. Reiley)
- 6: the artist, visionary, fingers made of ink pen nibs (Crispin Glover)
- 7: the warrior, female character, a rebel and loner, wears helmet made from bird’s skull (Jennifer Connely)
- 8: the bodyguard, a giant brute who isn’t very clever. Uses half a pair of scissors and a kitchen knife as weapons (Fred Tatasciore)
- 9: the hero, newest of the stitchpunks, skin fastened with a zipper (Elijah Wood)
Click here to view a trailer of 9
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