"9"

By Konstanov
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Grand Master

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Burton rules Comic Con with 'Alice' and '9'

Once again, Tim Burton rules the Con with an iron fist.

As if legions of followers in black-and-white finger gloves and Jack-and Sally-T-shirts weren't enough, this year, Burton is poised to inspire a new generation of Hot Topic shoppers with "Alice and Wonderland" and "9."

Thursday's "Alice" preview met hearty approval and early orders for light blue pinafores and purple top hats. On Friday, Burton brought "9," a doomsday doll movie that he produced with "Wanted" director Timur Bekmambetov.

Directed by Shane Acker, "9" follows a group of rag dolls as they seek out the truth of their existence in an apocalyptic landscape filled with murderous villains, dark corners, lurking dangers and usual sharp objects expected in a Burton film. Based on a short film by Acker, Burton was impressed with the CGI pic's stop-motion look. Jennifer Connelly and Elijah Wood star.

"I saw Shawn's short and I was immediately connected to it. You don't see many personal films that are animated," said Burton.

"We don't explain much. We just throw it at you," said Acker. "It's a quest for the characters to find out who they are and to do that we need to find out what happened to humans."

http://www.variety.com/article/VR111800646...=1&nid=2562

Burton and Bekmambetov came on board as producers, but left much of the filmmaking up to Acker. Said Burton, "Our goal was to let him make his movie... and to beat up anyone that got in his way."

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Grand Master

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Elijah Wood and Jennifer Connelly on '9' Characters.

Elijah Wood and Jennifer Connelly offered up some fresh incite into their characters in the upcoming animated feature 9 ? a fantastic tale of a wasted Earth after the extinction of humans and the unique creations that remain in a struggle to survive. The film, produced by Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov, is based on a 2005 animated short by director Shane Acker, which was nominated for an Academy Award. Wood plays the title character, a curious outsider to the clan that soon becomes its most important member.

"He sort of becomes a leader," said Wood speaking to the press at the San Diego Comic-Con on Friday. "He's not initially a leader. He kind of wakes up late in the process of these creatures' existence and comes to find that there is already a hierarchy ? led by '1.' He sort of comes to this group asking questions that they have ceased to ask over the period of time that they've existed. So he starts to... assumes a leadership role toward the end."

The cast also includes John C. Reilly, Martin Landau, Christopher Plumber, Crispin Glover and Jennifer Connelly as the unwavering fighter of the clan, '7.'

"She's a brave, fiercely independent warrior type who refuses to hide in the sanctuary that '1' has the rest of the creatures holed up," Connelly explained. "She's engaged in the struggle for survival."

The nine sack-like beings were created in the waning days of humanity by a character referred to as The Scientist. His goal was to have life continue on Earth even after he and the rest of the human population were gone. Connelly added a bit of background on the film's storyline.

"The film takes place in the aftermath of great destruction that was the devastation caused by these machines that were created in the name of progress that ultimately caused the devastation of the human race, and self-destructed and left the world this sort of wasteland," she said. "The human spirit has been captured in these creatures and there are some remaining mechanized beasts. There is this talisman that is sort of interest. Half of it the human spirits have and half of it is with the machines and it needs to be brought together for there to be peace and restoration."

Wood added that the overall themes of the movie were familiar ones.

"It's technology turning on man," he said. "It's the lust for power. I think those are things we can see in our world today, but certainly not on this scale."

Both Wood and Connelly said the original short was a great springboard into the feature film and that having that allowed them to more easily identify with the post-apocalyptic world that was created and the creatures that inhabited it.

"I've watched it many, many times," said Connelly. "Both of my kids became obsessed with it. It's beautiful. I thought it was stunning and so creative ? such a beautiful, frightening world he created."

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Grand Master

Rappy Veteran

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Elijah Wood explains his character, the ragdoll known only as 9:

He comes into the world late. So 1 has already established a kind of rule over the other characters, largely due to fear, staying away from the machines, not getting any answers and living cloistered in a tower. I love the fact that 9 comes into that world sort of naively but sort of wisely, and sees that that's not necessarily the way for them to live, and they're actually putting themselves in greater harm. If they simply asked the greater questions to find out who they are and what they are, they can get at what's ultimately keeping them cloistered away.

[Sci Fi Wire via TrekMovie]

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Grand Master

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Gotta say, I was really disappointed with this movie. I saw it in the theater this past Saturday.

Visually it is stunning. I LOVE the art direction and how can you not like the characters themselves. It also has a great apocalyptic feel to it as well, really conveying the damage done.

So where did it go wrong? The script and story. It obviously has it's underlying theme of technology is bad, man destroyed itself, etc., but the rest of it after that just made no real sense, and I was scratching my head (hard when you are bald) trying to figure out what the hell was going on. I was definitely looking more into it, because truth be told there was not much on the surface at all so I felt I had to try and figure out what else was meant. The dialog between characters itself was short and brief, I cannot imagine the script being any longer than 10-15 pages.

The movie is only 79 minutes, and it felt long, not a good sign for such a short movie. Just really expected more on the story front, and got something that only scratched the surface and could have gotten way, way deeper with things.

So not even sure what to rate it. I loved the visuals, and I am glad I saw it in the theater for them, so I do not totally regret seeing it, but I do feel they really missed the opportunity to deliver on a great story as well.

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