Directed by Ruari Robinson, short sci-fi film The Leviathan's created a web sensation. Ryan looks at how it's caught Hollywood's attention.
FeatureAs recently green-lit movies like Neill Blomkamp's Alien sequel and Fox's Deadpool spin-off have proved, a positive reaction on the web can go a long way. Both of those movies were put into production following a clamour of support - something director Ruari Robinson has experienced over the past few days with his sci-fi short, The Leviathan.
Robinson's probably best known for his debut feature film, The Last Days On Mars, an economical piece of space horror starring Liev Schreiber and Elias Koteas. But the Irish director's also been making a string of short films since the 1990s, which include Fifty Percent Grey, starring Cillian Murphy, and Blinky TM, about a robot on a killing spree.
It was The Leviathan, meanwhile, that captured the web's imagination. In just three minutes, it relates a distant future where faster-than-light travel has become possible thanks to the discovery of a powerful organic matter. That matter happens to be derived from the eggs of colossal flying creatures, which live in the roiling clouds of a far-off, hostile planet. The film shows us huge space ships flying in the planet's thick, muddy light, which we soon learn are essentially futuristic whaling vessels. Then, out of the clouds, along comes their prey - a colossal beast with gnashing jaws and leathery wings.
Within days of its appearance, The Leviathan garnered over a million hits, as viewers eagerly shared the atmospheric short among their friends. The final image, of the flying monster biting through the hull of a space ship, its occupant tumbling from the wreckage, is an evocative one, and hints at the wider story Robinson has in mind.
The Leviathan is a proof-of-concept and pitch for a feature of the same name. Robinson has enlisted the help of Jim Uhls - who famously adapted Fight Club for the screen in 1999 - to write the screenplay, which he's described as "Jaws plus Wages Of Fear multiplied by Alien" - or, as Film School Rejects put it, "Moby Dick in space."
When it came to the look of the film, Robinson enlisted the help of some extraordinarily talented artists to bring his future to life. Weta provided concept art, Ryan Stafford, the effects producer on Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, helped out with motion capture, while American concept artist Jordu Schell - whose work includes Starship Troopers, The Mist, Cloverfield, and Avatar - created that angry flying monster.
Nevertheless, Robinson described the process of making The Leviathan as "A year of pain", involving "16-hour days with no income and no days off."
Nevertheless, the hard work brought its reward thanks to the web. The old route of pitching a film concept used to occur behind closed doors: through a mixture of luck, perseverance and good connections, you showed your concept off to producers or would-be buyers. Robinson, on the other hand, decided to put The Leviathan out in the public domain to see how it played out - and as we've seen, the response was quite ecstatic.
That response soon caught the attention of Hollywood studios, who've reportedly been meeting with Robinson to try to make a deal. But then, on the 23rd of March, screenwriter and producing heavyweight Simon Kinberg (X-Men: Days Of Future Past) stepped into the fray, and apparently made an offer which sent the opposition packing.
This means that The Leviathan now has potential studio backing at Fox, with Neill Blomkamp - who made Elysium and Chappie with Kinberg - also stepping in as executive producer.
The Leviathan is by no means the first short sci-fi film to be picked up by a studio, and the deal doesn't necessarily mean we'll see a feature length version of it in a multiplex soon. In 2012, we posted an article about 10 short films that, at the time, were being developed into feature films, and of them, only two of them have made it through the filmmaking process. One is Mortal Kombat: Rebirth, which was adapted into the web series Mortal Kombat: Legacy. The other is Pixels, Patrick Jean's retro game-themed short which is heading to the screen this summer as an Adam Sandler comedy.
Nevertheless, The Leviathan has a shot at becoming a great sci-fi movie - especially with Neill Blomkamp, who's no stranger to adapting his short films into features - on hand to help develop it. Certainly, its pedigree, from its effects artists to its screenwriter and Robinson's experience as a director, is far, far better than most.
What's more, it's encouraging to see so much interest in an original sci-fi concept, particularly after the critical and financial failure of the Wachowskis' Jupiter Ascending left some wondering whether Hollywood studios would invest as heavily in such risky genre material again.
The Leviathan story's an encouraging reminder, too, for other makers of short films. While most filmmakers won't have Weta or Jim Uhls on speed-dial, the short's burst of attention proves that, if you have a talent for crafting engaging visuals or telling an exciting story in just a few minutes, you have at least the chance of finding a huge audience.
In the space of just three minutes, Robinson's teased an enticing and beautiful-looking sci-fi world. Let's hope we get to see a translation of it on the big screen soon.
