Ransom Riggs
Feature Films That Started as Shorts
by Ransom Riggs - December 8, 2009 - 7:50 AM

This summer saw the release of two major feature films that started life as shorts — District Nine and the animated film 9 (no relation, and not to be confused with the upcoming, Daniel-Day-Lewis-starring musical, Nine.) It’s enough to give young filmmakers out there hope: sometimes those short films can go a long way!

9
This animated short was created by Shane Acker while still a film student. Tim Burton saw it and was so impressed that he helped it become a feature, which was released recently.

Alive in Joburg
A similar story to 9 — FX whiz Neil Blomkamp created Alive in Joburg as a short, and Peter Jackson was so excited about it that (after failing to produce a movie version of Halo with Blomkamp as director) he produced a feature version of the short — this summer’s hit District 9.

Paluca
Jared Hess’ short film was the genesis for mega-hit Napoleon Dynamite.

Evil Dead
“Within the Woods” was Sam Raimi and Rob “Rip” Tapert’s promotional short that helped them raise money to make the original Evil Dead. It’s rough-looking and amateurish, but it stars Bruce Campbell and it launched a revolution in horror-comedy!

Bottle Rocket
Then-nobodies Owen and Luke Wilson star in Wes Anderson’s 1992 short film that became Bottle Rocket and launched all three of their careers. This is the first five minutes.

The Dirk Diggler Story
An excerpt from P.T. Anderson’s 1988 short, The Dirk Diggler Story, a mockumentary he made when he was just seventeen. It would eventually become Boogie Nights.

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Comments (13)

  1. I think someone forgot to include Sling Blade in this post.

    posted by Joel on 12-8-2009 at 8:48 am

  2. And Cashback

    posted by Bill Siderski on 12-8-2009 at 9:26 am

  3. I reckon so.

    posted by Lynne Finnigan on 12-8-2009 at 10:27 am

  4. There are many others I could’ve mentioned.

    posted by Ransom Riggs on 12-8-2009 at 10:44 am

  5. Joel beat me to it. I’ve been trying for years (albeit not very hard) to see “Some Call It a Sling Blade.” It’s not included on the DVD.

    posted by Dave on 12-8-2009 at 10:46 am

  6. Office Space!

    posted by nh344 on 12-8-2009 at 10:56 am

  7. Definitely glad that 9 was turned into a movie!

    posted by Levinson & Axelrod on 12-8-2009 at 11:10 am

  8. A 28 minute short called La Jetée by Chris Marker was the brain child for Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys

    posted by Joseph D'Asaro on 12-8-2009 at 11:17 am

  9. Some Call It a Sling Blade is available to stream on Netflix. You can watch it quick on a free trial, or subscribe for only $8.99/month.

    posted by Mike on 12-8-2009 at 12:15 pm

  10. Saw. That huge franchise started w/ a ten minute short by the duo from James Wan and Leigh Whannell. It was really a low budget film where it took place in an Aussie police station as a interview.

    posted by Tony on 12-8-2009 at 4:25 pm

  11. Half Nelson started out as a short.

    I like the short better actually.

    posted by sean on 12-8-2009 at 8:35 pm

  12. THX 1138 (from the short \Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB\) launched George Lucas’ career

    posted by kyle on 12-8-2009 at 10:43 pm

  13. The short for Napolean Dynamite is called Peluca (spanish for wig) not “Paluca”

    posted by winstonfox on 12-10-2009 at 8:54 pm

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