About one year ago a mysterious short film called “What’s In the Box?” by Tim Smit was posted on YouTube that impressed millions with it’s convincing (but unofficial) connection to LOST, Half Life, Portal, and Samsung, along with great VFX mystery and action. It lead to a complex fan-made viral and, with the creator getting contacted by 20th Century Fox, supposedly sparked a feature film adaption based on the short movie and assumptions that the viral connected to said film. After days, weeks, and even months, there was no more news on this feature film adaption, and it was for the most part forgotten, until now. Find out why after the jump.
First off, if you haven’t watched the short film already, then I cannot recommend it enough. Here it is below at a lengthy but awesome 9 minutes.
The sound effects and voices are from the Half Life universe, the music is from the LOST soundtrack by Michael Giacchino, and all of the phones are from Samsung. This mix of references turned out to be convincing yet completely unofficial. A 20th Century Fox representative got interested and contacted the creator, who happens to be Dutch. Here’s an interview with Smit talking all about it.
There was a lot of hype and rave for a short time but then we heard nothing. There was no more talk about the feature film since. Well, I thought it was time to start digging again when Smit recently uploaded a music video he did, seen below.
Smit is still doing amazing videos, so I contacted him and asked him (in both English and Dutch) if he’s still working on the feature film. He replied “I can only say we are in full gear making this into a feature! Although the wait is not yet over!”
So, it’s confirmed that this feature film is still in the works. If and when more progress is shown, we’ll start following the viral more closely. It will take some more waiting and patience (come to think of it he’d make a great Valve employee), so in the meantime you can catch up on the full viral at Wikibruce. Here’s the most recent clip in relation to the “What’s In The Box?” viral and movie. It’s only 30 seconds long but exciting nonetheless.
We’ll let you know as soon as we find out more. This feature film will surely answer questions, but from what we have already, what do you think is in The Box? Any theories are welcome in the comments.
I thought this was Half Life. Oh well, I can’t wait! I loved the short.