3 Scifi Shorts Good Enough to Score Movie Deals

One of the best things about the Internet (besides an endless supply of cute cat pictures) is the visibility it provides to independent artists. For example, amateur filmmakers can create their own short films, put them online, and get the attention of Hollywood movers and shakers. Here are three short films good enough to get a film adaptation in the works.

Beyond

This short film, Beyond, has some potential for mind-bending story and special effects. And it just got a movie deal. Here are the details from Hollywood Reporter:

Universal Pictures’ Syfy Films division has optioned the rights to the sci-fi short Beyond, with the short’s director on board to produce and helm the big-screen translation.

Raphael Rogers wrote, directed and produced Beyond, about a woman who is the last of lineage that possesses the ability to teleport across space and time and uses her powers to explore new planets.

Rogers, based in L.A., shot the short on a $1,000 budget, served as cinematographer and editor and was responsible for visual effects.

Keloid

Keloid is a short about a robot uprising that’s on its way to the bigger screen as well.  Here are more details from Hollywood Reporter.

Spanish-based J.J. Palomo directed the short and his six-man visual FX shop BLR VFX spent over a year developing it with the intent of turning it into a feature. (BLR stands for Big Lazy Robot, by the way.)

Palomo isn’t a complete unknown to Hollywood; he and his team have collaborated with Carl Rinsch several times and worked on the director’s breakout short, The Gift. (And Keloid’s concept art was provided by Aaron Beck, the concept designer for Avatar and District 9.)

And he had Hollywood in mind when he made it. Already Roy Lee of Vertigo Entertainment has partnered with Scott Glassgold and Raymond Brothers of IAM Entertainment to produce of the hoped-for feature and are talking to talent.

While the scenes and sequences of the trailer leave the viewer seeing a number of options for what storylines can play out, Palomo has what is described as an “expansive” take with a logline that is being kept under wraps.

R’ha

Another short we featured before is getting the most buzz with some heavy hitters behind it. Here’s the scoop from Hollywood Reporter:

Rick McCallum, the former head of Lucasfilm and producer of the recent Star Wars trilogy, is boarding the feature as producer, making it his first sci-fi project since leaving the George Lucas fold.

Steve Tzirlin, who was a producer on Star Wars: Clone Wars and worked with McCallum at Lucasfilm, will also produce. The two now join original producers Raymond Brothers and Scott Glassgold of IAM Entertainment.

Meanwhile, TV creator Matthew Graham, best known for his series Life on Mars but who also worked on the aborted live-action Star Wars TV show, is coming on board to pen the screenplay.

Kaleb Lechowski created the short and is attached to direct the feature, which is unique in that it follows a nonhuman alien from a race called the R’Ha, who defend a cluster of solar systems from a menacing attack.

What did you think of the films? Which would make the best movie?

Oh, and lest we forget the real purpose of the Internet…

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