Looks like yet another flashy short film has caught the attention of some studio folks in Hollywood, and is now on its way to getting a feature-length adaptation… much like other recent YouTube hits Panic Attack!, Pixels and The Gift. Everyone wants to find the next District 9 right now, and apparently Universal Pictures believes that Ricardo de Montreuil could be the next Neill Blomkamp. According to Latino Review, Montreuil’s $5000 short film The Raven is currently being set up as a potential starring vehicle for Mark Wahlberg. Hey, beggars can’t be choosers!

The short film doesn’t have much of a story, but it appears to be set in a dystopian future version of Los Angeles where robots are pursuing a young man named Chris Black, who possesses some sort of telekinetic ability. Much like Carl Erick Rinsch’s The Gift, it’s basically one long chase scene that is used to showcase some cool special effects. Clearly it is the effects that managed to get Hollywood’s attention… after all, characters and story can always be added in post, right?

Montreuil is supposedly getting the chance to direct the feature-length movie himself, although the script has been farmed out to fanboy favourite Justin Marks, who has written screenplays for everything from Voltron and He-Man to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Super Max. Of course, the only thing he’s written that’s actually hit the big screen thus far is Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, which is… unfortunate. Either way, I’m curious to see what comes of this project, although I do think the studios are getting a little overzealous with some of these short films they are picking up. Check out original short below and see what you think.