Focus Features rolled out an extended clip of Shane Acker’s “9” a few moments ago to adulating fans who seemed more eager to ask producer Tim Burton a slew of peripheral questions and offer the usual “you’re an inspiration” sentiments to the macabre-obsessed director. So it goes at Comic-Con.
But on the issue at hand, Burton offered that he connected to Acker’s original short film (which was nominated for an Academy Award in 2005) immediately.
“You see a lot of personal films, but you don’t see a lot of personal films that are animated,” he said in the post-screening panel discussion. “I’ve been through it before, endless conversations with studios, ‘Why can’t Jack Skellington have eyes?’ I thought I could at least help fight those battles so he could concentrate on the film. You’ve got enough to worry about making the film to have those kind of stupid conversations.”
Acker, who chimed in there to mention how supportive Focus, which he calls a “director-driven” studio, has been on the project, said he didn’t originally conceive the story as a feature film. It was more of a director’s reel piece meant to secure other work for him as a filmmaker. But when Burton (and co-producer Timur Bekmambetov) took an interest and the project began to unfold as as a feature, he fell in love with the story all over again.