Having attracted the attention of filmmaker Tim Burton, director Shane Acker’s award-winning CG-animated short film, 9, is coming to the big screen this year. Set in a post-apocalyptic world inhabited by rag dolls and mechanized monstrosities, this grim fairy tale adventure promises to deliver a very different brand of animated entertainment than most American moviegoers are accustomed to. Focus Features plans to release the pic theatrically on Sept. 9 (09-09-09). Catch a sneak peek by watching the trailer in HD at www.apple.com/trailers/focus_features/9/hd.
Elijah Wood, who previously lent his voice to the lead character in the Oscar winning animated feature Happy Feet, heads up 9‘s all-star voice cast, playing a living rag doll who may be mankind’s last hope. Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly (The Day the Earth Stood Still) will play a brave warrior with the moniker 7, and Annie nominee Christopher Plummer (Babes in Toyland) will voice the role of 1, a domineering war veteran. The cast also includes actor/filmmaker Crispin Glover (Beowulf) as a visionary and artist named 6, Academy Award winner Martin Landau (Ed Wood) as an aged inventor named 2, and John C. Reilly (Year of the Dog) as stalwart mechanic 5.
Acker’s 2005 short film was named Best Animated Short at the San Diego Comic-Con Int’l and picked up a Student Academy Award before taking top honors at SIGGRAPH. The filmmaker directed the feature as well from a script by Pamela Pettler. Visionary Russian filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted, Day Watch, Night Watch) and Jim Lemley produced the film alongside Burton, and Focus creative exec David Gerson oversaw the project for president of production John Lyons.
