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Producing and releasing a short film is significantly more affordable than creating a feature-length movie, and it often serves as a director's breakthrough opportunity in Hollywood. Below is a list of 19 short films that were later adapted into full-length features.
1. Short: Bottle Rocket / Feature: Bottle Rocket
In 1992, Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson, who met in a playwright class at the University of Texas in Austin, teamed up to create a short film titled Bottle Rocket. The film revolved around the misadventures of three inept aspiring criminals, portrayed by Robert Musgrave, Owen Wilson, and his brother Luke. Despite receiving minimal attention from critics and attendees at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival, the short film caught the attention of producer James L. Brooks, who financed the duo's first feature-length adaptation of the project.
The full-length version of Bottle Rocket debuted in 1996 and quickly became a cult favorite among critics and movie enthusiasts. While the 13-minute short and the 92-minute feature share similarities, the latter expanded the storyline and introduced color cinematography. Additionally, the jazzy soundtrack of the short was replaced with a new score by Mark Mothersbaugh, a former member of Devo. Renowned director Martin Scorsese included Bottle Rocket in his top 10 favorite films of the 1990s, and it marked the beginning of successful careers for Anderson and the Wilson brothers.
2. Short: Jay & Seth vs. The Apocalypse / Feature: This Is The End
In 2007, Jay Baruchel and Seth Rogen appeared in a 10-minute short film depicting two friends, Jay and Seth, bickering while confined to their apartment during an apocalyptic disaster. Originally created for film festivals, the concept was later developed into the 2013 feature film This Is The End.
The feature film shifted its setting to a Hollywood party, focusing on a group of celebrities experiencing the Biblical Rapture. The comedy featured James Franco, Rogen, Baruchel, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, and Danny McBride portraying exaggerated versions of their public personas.
3. Short: Frankenweenie / Feature: Frankenweenie
In 2007, Disney enlisted Tim Burton to direct two films utilizing Disney Digital 3D, the studio's proprietary 3D technology: Alice In Wonderland and a stop-motion animated reimagining of Burton’s 1984 short film Frankenweenie. The original short was a live-action production featuring Shelley Duvall, Daniel Stern, and Barret Oliver as members of the Frankenstein family.
Upon completion of the short, Disney dismissed Burton as the film failed to align with the studio’s vision for a family-friendly movie. Initially planned to accompany the 1984 re-release of Pinocchio, Disney ultimately chose to shelve Frankenweenie. However, after Burton achieved success with Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure and the original Batman series, Disney released the short on home video in 1992.
The feature-length adaptation of Frankenweenie premiered in 2012 and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature Film.
4. Short: Le Jetée / Feature: 12 Monkeys
Terry Gilliam’s 1995 sci-fi masterpiece 12 Monkeys, a time-travel film, became a box office success. Brad Pitt’s portrayal of the unstable Jeffery Goines garnered him his first Academy Award nomination, and the film won the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film. Few realize that 12 Monkeys was inspired by Chris Marker’s 1962 French New Wave short film La Jetée.
The French short film unfolds through still images and text, depicting a man held captive beneath a post-apocalyptic Paris following the devastation of the Third World War. Scientists, having developed time travel, select him as a test subject due to his rare ability to endure the agonizing journey into the past.
Gilliam’s adaptation preserved the original’s themes of fragmented memories and time manipulation but added elements like a deadly virus and the terrorist group known as the Army of the Twelve Monkeys.
5. Short: Alive in Joburg / Feature: District 9
In 2005, Neill Blomkamp crafted a dystopian vision of South Africa with his short film Alive In Joburg. The film depicted extraterrestrial refugees residing in Johannesburg and examined the human population’s treatment of this alien species. Shot in a documentary style, the short explored themes of apartheid in South Africa and served as a proof-of-concept to demonstrate high-quality special effects on a limited budget.
Alive in Joburg attracted the attention of Peter Jackson, who intended to produce a live-action adaptation of the video game Halo with Blomkamp directing. When the Halo project fell through, Jackson provided Blomkamp with $30 million to pursue any project he desired. This led to the creation of District 9, a box office success that earned a 2009 Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. Blomkamp introduced Wikus van de Merwe, portrayed by Sharlto Copley, a government official who gradually transforms into an alien. Copley also produced Alive in Joburg.
6. Short: The Dirk Diggler Story / Feature: Boogie Nights
At just 17 years old in 1987, Paul Thomas Anderson created a mockumentary short film chronicling the rise and fall of a fictional adult film star named Dirk Diggler. Anderson filmed The Dirk Diggler Story using a video camera and edited the 32-minute project with a VCR-to-VCR setup. Inspired by the turbulent life of 1970s porn icon John Holmes and his involvement in the infamous 1981 Wonderland Murders, the short also drew inspiration from Rob Reiner’s mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap.
Nearly ten years later, in 1997, Paul Thomas Anderson revisited The Dirk Diggler Story with his second feature film, Boogie Nights. The movie propelled Anderson’s career as a visionary filmmaker, earning three Academy Award nominations.
7. Short: Within The Woods / Feature: The Evil Dead
In 1978, Sam Raimi, equipped with a Super 8 camera, a secluded cabin, and his longtime collaborator Bruce Campbell, produced a 30-minute horror short titled Within The Woods. The film was created to attract investors for a potential feature-length project. Made on a shoestring budget of $1600, the short was later reimagined as the 1981 feature film The Evil Dead. Today, Within The Woods is regarded as a prequel to Raimi’s iconic Evil Dead series.
8. Short: Peluca / Feature: Napoleon Dynamite
Before Jon Heder became famous for his role in the 2004 indie sensation Napoleon Dynamite, he portrayed the same quirky character (named Seth) in Jared Hess’ 2002 student short film Peluca. Shot in Hess’ hometown of Preston, Idaho, the black-and-white 16mm film was produced over two days with a budget of just $500. After its screening at the 2003 Slamdance Film Festival, Peluca was developed into the feature-length Napoleon Dynamite the following year.
Despite its modest budget of $400,000 (Heder earned only $1000 for reprising his role), Napoleon Dynamite became a sleeper hit in 2004. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where Fox Searchlight secured its distribution rights, turning it into an overnight cult classic.
9. Short: Milton / Feature: Office Space
In the 1990s, Mike Judge produced a series of animated shorts centered on Milton, a timid office worker enduring constant humiliation. These shorts gained popularity on MTV’s Liquid Television and later on Saturday Night Live. Judge expanded the concept into his 1999 feature film Office Space. While Milton and his overbearing boss Bill Lumbergh were relegated to supporting roles, the film’s tone and humor were heavily influenced by Judge’s original characters and Stephen Root’s memorable portrayal of Milton, the office’s perennial underdog.
10. Short: Some Folks Call It A Sling Blade / Feature: Sling Blade
Before Billy Bob Thornton’s Sling Blade earned the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, Thornton penned the 1994 short film Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade. Directed by George Hickenlooper, the 29-minute short starred Molly Ringwald and J.T. Walsh alongside Thornton, who played Karl Childers, a man with intellectual disabilities. Both films explore Childers’ reintegration into society after serving time for the murder of his mother and her lover. However, the feature film replaced the short’s black-and-white visuals with color cinematography, an extended narrative, and more references to French fried potaters.
11. Short: Cashback / Feature: Cashback
In 2004, British filmmaker Sean Ellis wrote and directed the short film Cashback, which follows an art student working at a late-night supermarket to cope with his insomnia. The short garnered numerous awards at international film festivals and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Live-Action Short Film in 2006. While the short was critically acclaimed, its feature-length adaptation received mixed reviews. The feature retained several cast members from the short, including Sean Biggerstaff, Emilia Fox, and Michael Dixon.
12. Short: The Customer Is Always Right / Feature: Sin City
Following his work on the RoboCop sequels, Frank Miller, the comic book writer, became disenchanted with Hollywood and vowed never to sell the film rights to his graphic novels. When Robert Rodriguez expressed interest in adapting Miller’s Sin City, he created a three-minute proof-of-concept short titled The Customer Is Always Right, featuring actors Josh Hartnett and Marley Shelton. Impressed by Rodriguez’s fidelity to the source material, Miller approved the adaptation. The short film later became the opening scene of the final Sin City movie.
13. Short: Gowanus, Brooklyn / Feature: Half Nelson
In 2004, Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden co-wrote and directed a 19-minute short film titled Gowanus, Brooklyn, which centered on a middle school teacher struggling with cocaine addiction. The short won the Short Filmmaking Award at the Sundance Film Festival and evolved into the 2006 feature film Half Nelson. Retaining the short’s handheld, minimalist aesthetic, the feature starred Ryan Gosling, who earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, though he lost to Forest Whitaker for his role in The Last King of Scotland.
14. Short: 9 / Feature: 9
In 2005, Shane Acker, a film student at the UCLA Animation Workshop, created the short film 9 as his thesis project. The 11-minute short depicted ragdolls surviving in a post-apocalyptic world and attracted the attention of Tim Burton, who encouraged Acker to develop it into a feature film. Released on September 9, 2009, the feature boasted a star-studded voice cast, including Elijah Wood, Jennifer Connelly, and John C. Reilly. While the short film won numerous awards, the feature adaptation received mixed reviews from critics and audiences.
15. Short: Electronic Labyrinth: THX-1138 4EB / Feature: THX-1138
Before George Lucas achieved fame with American Graffiti and Star Wars in the 1970s, he created a student film titled Electronic Labyrinth: THX-1138 4EB while studying at the University of Southern California in 1967. The short depicted a dystopian underground society, focusing on one citizen’s yearning for a life beyond monotony.
The short was adapted into a feature film after Lucas’ friend and fellow USC student Francis Ford Coppola established his production company, American Zoetrope, in 1971. The feature, now titled THX-1138, became the first project under the new studio.
Coppola secured a distribution deal with Warner Bros., but studio executives despised THX-1138 and demanded repayment of the $300,000 loaned for production. The film nearly bankrupted American Zoetrope, but Coppola’s success with The Godfather in 1972 saved the company.
In 2010, Electronic Labyrinth: THX-1138 4EB was chosen for preservation in the Library of Congress’ U.S. National Film Registry, recognized for its cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance.
16. Short: Saw / Feature: Saw
In 2003, Leigh Whannell and James Wan, unable to secure producers for their script, relocated to Los Angeles to seek funding for their horror film Saw. To pitch their vision, they created a short film showcasing a brutal torture sequence.
In Los Angeles, Whannell and Wan connected with producer Gregg Hoffman, who was impressed by the seven-minute short’s graphic intensity. Hoffman shared the Saw short and script with his partners, Mark Burg and Oren Koules of Evolution Entertainment, leading to a $1.2 million investment for the feature. The deal granted the filmmakers creative control and 25 percent of the film’s net profits.
A decade later, the short film inspired seven movies, two video games, a toy line, and three theme park attractions. The Saw franchise also popularized the “Torture Porn” subgenre in horror. Lionsgate, the distributor of the Saw series, has shown interest in rebooting the highly successful franchise.
17. Short: Mama / Feature: Mama
When Andrés Muschietti and his sister Bárbara Muschietti released their short film Mama in 2008, it immediately attracted the attention of filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, who agreed to produce and fund a feature adaptation. Both versions follow two young sisters, Victoria and Lilly, abandoned in a forest cabin.
Presumed missing or dead, the sisters were discovered five years later, cared for by a ghost they called “Mama.” The feature expanded on Victoria and Lilly’s backstory and psychological struggles, introducing new characters like their uncle, played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and his girlfriend, portrayed by Jessica Chastain, who grows close to the girls.
18. Short: The Hard Case / Feature: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Before Guy Ritchie became a household name in the late '90s, the 27-year-old director created the short film The Hard Case in 1995. The 20-minute short caught the eye of Sting after his wife Trudie Styler recommended it. Sting invested in Ritchie’s feature film, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, based on the short. Released in the U.S. in 1999, the crime film launched the careers of Ritchie, Jason Statham, and Vinnie Jones.
19. Short: Machete / Feature: Machete
In 2007, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino collaborated on the exploitation double feature Grindhouse. Rodriguez contributed the sci-fi zombie horror film Planet Terror, while Tarantino presented the dialogue-heavy slasher Death Proof. Between the features, fake trailers were shown, including one featuring Rodriguez’s recurring character, Isador “Machete” Cortez. Three years later, Rodriguez expanded the trailer into a full-length feature titled Machete.
Primary image courtesy of IMPA Awards.
