‘Sundays’ Is the Next Sci-Fi Short to Get the Feature-Length Treatment

The other day, we reported on The Leviathan, an interesting proof of concept short that’s being developed into a film with producers Neill Blomkamp and Simon Kinberg over at Fox. That’s not the only sci-fi short that’s getting the big screen treatment: on the heels of that news comes word that Warner Bros. has just acquired the film rights to Sundays, a short directed by Mischa Rozema.

Deadline reports that WB has picked up the rights to Rozema’s short, which you can watch above. The acting isn’t…great, but there are some interesting ideas in the concept, which wears its influences on its sleeve — The Matrix, Sunshine, District 9, etc. all clearly influenced this piece, which was funded with the help of $50,000 on Kickstarter.

Unlike The Leviathan and other recent concept videos, Sundays was created with the intent to attract studio offers. A producer took Rozema’s concept to the UTA agency, which advised the director to set up a Kickstarter to generate the money needed to make the video. Rozema did just that, creating the video with the help of the VFX company he conveniently co-owns.

Here’s the official description of Sundays from the filmmakers themselves:

Set in Mexico City sometime in the future and starring US actor Brian Petsos and Mexican actress Sofia Sisniega, SUNDAYS is an ambitious philosophical science-fiction proof-of-concept short. The end of the world seems like a nightmare to Ben. A memory of a past life that doesn’t belong to him. When Ben starts to remember Isabelle, the only love he’s ever known, he realises she’s missing in his life. An existential descent into confusion and the desperate need to find out the truth begins. This reality depicts a stunning, surprising and dark world. A world that is clearly not his.

Hopefully Warner Bros. can attract better writing and acting talent for Rozema to make his feature film debut. The short has some undeniably cool imagery, but the majority is all CGI, so it’s difficult to tell exactly what Rozema’s planning with this.