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So many shorts to adapt, so little time. Late last year Sam Raimi paid top dollar for Fede Alvarez’s internet sensation Panic Attack, starting a trend that has continued with Carl Erik Rinsch’s The Giftkicking off a bidding war between major studios. Today, another web short has been optioned by a top-tier entertainer, and given the star power and strength of his studio connections, we may actually see this get made.
THR’s Heat Vision Blog reports that Adam Sandler, through his Sony-based Happy Madison production company, will develop a big-screen take of French filmmaker Patrick Jean’s Pixels. The much-buzzed-about short featuring 1980s video game characters (including Space Invaders, Frogger and Pac-Man) attacking New York City got a thumbs-up from filmmaker Edgar Wright and became a viral hit in April, leading Jean to a contract with William Morris Endeavor.
There’s an amazing extended scene in the movie Birth (2004), where the camera just holds on Nicole Kidman as she watches an Opera — her head swirling with emotion and confusion. It’s simple, but mesmerizing.
The short film Evidence (1995), by Godfrey Reggio, the writer-director of Koyaanisqatsi (2004), reminds me of that scene. He’s taken a group of cute, confused and Omen-esque kids, and simply aimed a camera at them while they watch T.V.
Evidence looks into the eyes of children watching television – in this case Walt Disney’s “Dumbo”. Though engaged in a daily routine, they appear drugged, retarded, like the patients of a mental hospital. Evidence is about the behavior of children watching television – an activity whose physiological aspects have been overlooked in the current controversy surrounding television.
Throw in a haunting score by Philip Glass, and you have a chilling indictment of the power of television (or possibly Dumbo).
This sci-fi action short, by Peruvian Director Ricardo De Montreuil, was created for only $5,000 and shot in one weekend in L.A. It was originally conceived as part of a trilogy, but now, according to The Latino Review, the director is fielding calls from studios interested in turning it into a feature film — and the short’s only been on the web for a few days.
What’s stopping you from creating your own amazing short, and writing yourself into Hollywood?
The wonderful thing about YouTube is that anyone, with a camera and an idea, can be a filmmaker.
MindbreakOne has created this cute and clever “tribute to one of my favorite movies. Planned, shot and edited in 7 hours.”
I just discovered it today, but it’s a couple of years old, so forgive me if you’ve seen it already. The short features Tamazina Jones, a persian cat from Indiana, with mad treasure hunting skills.
Do you have an idea for an entertaining Internet meme? Maybe you can use it to help build your brand.
Want me to personally read your script and let you know if it’s ready to go out? Please take a look at my professional script services.
This brilliant, fun [short film] from France does several difficult things at the same time:
1) it perfectly captures my nostalgia for old video games
2) it makes you feel sorry for obsolete technology, and
3) it posits an end-of-world scenario few of us have ever considered: what would happen if the big, blocky pixels of the past came back and took their revenge?
The trend of successful viral shorts being made into movies continues.
There’s an amazing extended scene in the movie 
The wonderful thing about YouTube is that anyone, with a camera and an idea, can be a filmmaker.