If you've been on YouTube or Vimeo during the past 24 hours, chances are you've noticed The Leviathan, a proof-of-concept short film partly inspired by Moby Dick and Dune. It's a gorgeous video, with great special effects, an accomplished style and millions of views on Vimeo and YouTube. So Hollywood wants in.
Deadline reports Simon Kinberg, a producer behind X-Men: Days of Future Past and the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot, and Neill Blomkamp, the director behind District 9 and Chappie, came on board to produce director Ruairi Robinson's 3 1/2 minute short into a feature film.
Blomkamp and Kinberg, in addition to this upcoming film, also produced Blomkamp's Elysium and Chappie together. While Blomkamp serves as an executive producer on this sci-fi film, Kinberg is a firm producer and his first-look deal with Fox could give this film the studio backing it needs to come into development. He has worked under Fox primarily for the last couple years, although should they say no he could go to Sony, which hosted the Blomkamp films, and Disney, who worked with Kinberg as a producer on Cinderella and as a creative consultant on Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Although The Leviathan premiered online less than a week ago, its been an online sensation just recently. With a screenplay from Jim Uhls (Fight Club), the short film-turned-feature follows early 22nd century society where mankind colonized different worlds with faster travel time makes it possible by harvesting exotic matter from the eggs of the largest species ever seen. While Robinson only directed one feature film before this, 2013's The Last Days on Mars, he is an established, Oscar-nominated filmmaker behind short films like Fifty Percent Grey and Blinky. He also was, at one point, attached to direct the live-action version of Akira.
Blomkamp's next film is a re-adaptation of Alien with 20th Century Fox, which may also help The Leviathan come to their house. While Kinberg is not attached to produce that film, he does have in development Ridley Scott's The Martian, Deadpool and X-Men: Apocalypse, all of which should come out soon.
Check out the great short film below:
Image courtesy of Zak Hussein/INFphoto.com