#9, voiced by Elijah Wood, battles the Fabrication Machine in Shane Acker’s animated film 9. Photo courtesy of Focus Features.

Movie adaptations come in many shapes and sizes. 9, the upcoming animated film by Shane Acker, began as an 11 minute short at UCLA animation school that earned an Oscar nomination in 2005. With the help of producer Tim Burton, 9 has been stretched out for a feature debut. The mute characters of the original short film now bear the voices of immense talents such as Martin Landau and Jennifer Connelly. We spoke with creator Shane Acker and star Elijah Wood in a conference call to learn more about this mysterious and innovative new project.

Did you ever expect your short to be made into a feature film?

Shane Acker: I intended it to be a director’s reel piece, which is why I spent four and a half years making it, but I never expected a feature. That just came out of a conversation with the initial producer… We considered the back story and where these creatures came from and that lead to a feature.

Were there any difficulties adapting the film from short to feature?

Acker: Well, it was a long process, riddled with new situations I had never been in before. I had never told stories [in] long form, which was a challenge. You didn’t want the film to look like you just stretched out the short. We opened up the possibility of seeing all nine of the characters instead of just the two. As the movie goes, we keep seeing new characters with all these personalities, also exploring the back story of where everything came from. It became a journey of discovery.

What made Elijah want to be a part of the project?

Wood: Simply the short film. It was my initial introduction into the project. I received the short and the script and was so impressed. It was so beautiful and had elements that looked like moving paintings. I’d never seen animation like that before [...] and I think it’s incredibly intriguing because it never gives you a sense of who they are and what has happened, so it leaves you with a lot of questions. I wanted to be a part of the fleshing out of that story.

On what level did you [Elijah] connect with 9?

Elijah Wood: Well, I think he comes into the world kind of innocent and pure, and he kind of comes in without any of the baggage that the other characters have. I identified with his sense of questioning, with his fearlessness and perseverance. I appreciated it about the character. These other characters have been sequestered by fear and it kind of runs their lives, so they stop asking the questions that lead to their salvation.

Shane, what inspired you to show the battle of man versus machine?

Acker: I think in some ways the film is a bit of a cautionary tale and a reaction to the world we live in. We are so overwhelmed with information and technology, and it is easy to get caught up in it all and lose sight of what’s important — real human interaction I think. On some level, I think that’s just a fear that I had.

Both of you worked on the Lord of the Rings. How did your experiences influence you?

Acker: Well, I did a lot of creature animation and I think it was so amazing to be a part of that team. Everyone was so inspired by the project, and I learned a tremendous amount working with world-class animators. It was real learning experience. I don’t think I had a tenth of the experience Elijah had on that project.

Wood: God, well the experience for me was all-encompassing. I don’t know if the experience directly lent itself to working on 9, but I think any experience after Lord of the Rings was inspired just because of the vastness of the work and responsibility towards the character that is fleshed out over the course of three films. All of those elements were so unique and so intense, I think they will continue to inform anything I work on from now on [laughs].

How do you build character relationships when dealing with animation?

Wood: You don’t often get the benefit of working with the full cast, and so much of the fleshing out of the character is from the interaction with the other actors. So animation and voice work is challenging in that respect. You are more often than not in a booth by yourself [...] making that character come to life is hard without a reference to the other actors’ performances. In the initial recordings, sometimes Shane would have to do reference voices for me for the other characters because they hadn’t been recorded yet.

Why do you think that college students in particular would be interested in seeing this film?

Acker: For me it works on many different levels. On face value, you can take it as this exciting escapist fantasy film. But I also think we bring up deeper subjects and deal with them. There is some food for thought that when you leave the theater might inspire some deeper conversations. People who have seen the film twice also see so much more the second time.

Elijah, do you prefer live-action or lending yourself to a film?

Wood: Well, there are distinct differences. When you do voice-overs, you don’t worry about costumes and props and environment. It’s challenging because you have to evoke all of those things with just your voice and no facial expressions or movements. I actually love that challenge. It’s fun for action sequences! When your character is being swung around by a winged beast and you are running, you have to evoke all of these things with imagination.You’re also rewarded and surprised with animation at the end when you see all of your work come to life.

Shane, 7 is a very bold and strong female figure. How did you come about creating her?

Acker: Well, we thought it would be fun if one of the strongest characters was female. It goes back to [Hayao] Miyazaki or James Cameron who both use really strong female characters. It was fun to have someone with such a hard shell in the beginning and then to see throughout the film that there is a real strong heart within her. It takes 9 to chip away at that exterior and make her express herself.

What do you think will mark the next phase in animation? How will technology factor in and how will content change?

Acker: It’s always hard to predict the future, but I can see in the past few years a lot has changed. Waltz with Bashir was really amazing and used animation in an interesting way. I think Persepolis was also a great film. There’s a way in which you can deal with intense subject matter and say things that would be harder to say than in a live-action form. Now that technology is not so expensive, I think it would be great to see people take more into their own hands.

Wood: Yeah, Waltz with Bashir takes a story that is intensely disturbing that would be more disturbing or too difficult to watch in another medium, but the animation style keeps it not at arms length but allows you to experience it in a way that’s more palatable. And something is up with 3-D now too. Everything that comes out seems to be in 3-D, I wonder if that will become more commonplace. Coraline, for example, used 3-D in a way so that it got more intense as the story went along. I still wonder if it will be part of the future animation experience.

Acker: Yeah, Coraline uses it as a part of the story telling rather than as a gimmick. It enhances the movie in a narrative way. Also, I had a chance to see Avatar and I think they really use 3D to bring you into the world. It’s not about poking your eyes out but about being very subtle and controlled. Who knows if that will stick around.