Ever since District 9 hit theaters and surprised everyone with its excellent low-budget effects and well-written (read: smart) script, Hollywood has been on watch for the next round of do-it-yourself sci-fi to make itself known online. Remember, District 9 was born from a short film that director Neill Blomkamp put together himself, and now other up-and-coming directors are taking similar routes by producing their own out-of-this-world shorts in an effort to sell Hollywood on their smart, original, unique ideas.

'The Gift'

And it seems to be working, as a bunch of studios are now in a bidding war over a project from director Erik Carl Rinsch that's based on his short film, The Gift. Rinsch is a commercial director who's heavily involved with Ridley Scott's production company and is also said to be dating his daughter. He was also the chosen director for the new Alien movie but Fox decided to go with Ridley Scott instead because of Rinsch's lack of experience. Not for nothing, but his lack of experience certainly doesn't show in this short film.
 
The short was put online during the week, and shortly after a number of studios began battling for the rights to a feature based on only a few minutes of what looked like a really cool futuristic robot-centric, Bourne-like action movie.
 
Not long after that, word came down from Slashfilm that the feature film they were all bidding on was actually already written, designed and a lot further along in development than most of us had thought. The site also shared a few concept pieces that feature big robot creatures in snowy regions (the original short takes place in Russia). The feature film is called Small, and it's said to pick up right after the short ends. Since Ridley Scott has a deal with 20th Century Fox, most feel the feature will end up there.
 
Check out the short below and let us know if you think this has the potential to become the next District 9. There's definitely a similar vibe in the whole human vs. creature thing, and I also feel like there's some fascinating social commentary underneath it all, too. Watch and you'll see what I mean…