Shane Acker

Shane Acker
Born	1971 (age 41–42) Wheaton, Illinois
Alma mater	University of California, Los Angeles
Occupation	Animator Film Director Screenwriter Animation Teacher
Years active	1999–present
Influenced by	John Kricfalusi, Tex Avery, John Lasseter, Brad Bird

Shane Acker (born 1971, Wheaton, Illinois) is an American filmmaker known for creating 9, which is based on his 2005 Academy Award-nominated short film, 9. He is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles.

Background

As a child Acker was hyperactive, so his parents encouraged him to draw and read. He often read books by Brian Froud.

Acker originally set a goal of becoming an architect; he earned a bachelor's degree in architecture from the University of Florida in 1994 as well as a masters degree from the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture.

Upon graduating in 1999, he decided to become a film-maker and went to study at UCLA's Animation Workshop. There he created The Hangnail, The Astounding Talent of Mr. Grenade, and 9.

In 2005 he wrote, directed, and co-animated the award-winning animated short film 9, which won a student award and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film and was shown at SIGGRAPH Electronic Theater. The producer Tim Burton (director of Beetlejuice) saw Acker's short film and, with the help of Timur Bekmambetov (director of Wanted), made the feature film with Attitude Studios in Luxembourg and Starz Animation in Toronto.

He was also a visiting professor at Loyola Marymount University.

Acker is currently “Artist in Residence” at Gnomon School of Visual Effects, a provider of online tutorials for visual effects artists. He has been working at Gnomon on a short film Plus Minus, co-directed by Aristomenis Tsirbas and due for release in late 2011.

In June 2011, Acker was chosen to direct a new live-action adaptation of the children's book and TV series, Thomas & Friends. He will be working from a script by Chris Viscardi, Will McRobb and Josh Klausner. Weta Digital will create the film's visual effects, with design by Weta Workshop Design Dept. It is expected to be released in 2014.

As of 2011, Acker formed Benthos Studio, an animation production company with partners Greg Little, Jack Mitchell and Brown Bag Films.

In 2012, Shane Acker confirmed that he planned to work with Valve to create his next animated feature film, Deep. Like 9, the film will be in a post-apocalyptic world, although it has no relation to 9 and is set in a different universe, where World War III has forced humans underground. Deep will be another darker animated film, as Shane Acker has expressed his interest in creating more PG-13 animated films.

Influences

Shane Acker has cited The Brothers Quay, Don Hertzfeldt, Jan Švankmajer, and brothers Wolfgang and Christoph Lauenstein as inspirations. His other influences are John Kricfalusi, Tex Avery, John Lasseter, and Brad Bird.

Filmography

Feature films

Year	Film	Director	Writer	Visual Effects	Note
2003	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King			Y	Animator
2009	9	Y	Y		Directorial debut
2012	Journey 2: The Mysterious Island			Y	Previsualization Artist
	47 Ronin			Y	Previsualization Supervisor
	Total Recall			Y	Previsualization Artist
2014	Untitled Thomas and Friends Film Project	Y
TBA	Beasts of Burden	Y

Short films

Year	Film	Director	Writer	Animator
1999	The Hangnail	Y		Y
2003	The Astounding Talent of Mr. Grenade	Y	Y	Y
2005	9	Y	Y	Y
2009	A Jake and a Tom			Y
TBA	Plus Minus	Y

External links

• Official website
• Shane Acker at the Internet Movie Database