Short stories published on Reddit have been selling for lucrative amounts to studios like Warner Bros, Amazon MGM and Netflix. It seems there’s no need to write a full screenplay: a few thousand words in a short story could be enough to kick start a Hollywood dream. I Pretended to be a Missing Girl, the story attached to Warner Bros, with Sydney Sweeney producing, was posted in 2020 by English teacher Scott Cote to Reddit’s popular horror community r/NoSleep, where stories must be written as if true, in the first-person – and commenters must act in the same spirit. Film rights sold last year. Marcus Kliewer. Brian Van Wyk/Penguin Random House Stop-motion animator Marcus Kliewer also found success on r/NoSleep, where his short story We Used to Live Here attracted the attention of a producer who sold it to Netflix in 2021, with Blake Lively set to star and produce. Kliewer then got a book deal. An expanded version of his story became his debut novel. His second novel, The Caretaker, published last month, was also based on a short story (unpublished), with film rights already sold; it will be produced by Sweeney, too.Online platforms such as Reddit and Wattpad, a platform for publishing and sharing fiction, have become part of a legitimate acquisition pipeline. New York magazine reported in late 2024 on the “booming subgenre” of movies based on Wattpad stories (including Amazon Prime’s most popular original film worldwide in 2023, My Fault).Why short stories suit filmOn these platforms, writers can test their skills by sharing their stories with a ready-made readership (in some cases, up to 20 million members). In some ways, these stories are audience-tested through the number of “upvotes” or “likes” or “shares” they receive. So, the story may already have hype around it before being snapped up by a Hollywood producer.For producers, a short story is faster to read than a full screenplay. It also serves as a good indicator of how well a story will translate into a treatment: the summary of a film’s narrative prepared before investing in a full screenplay. This makes economic sense too: buying the rights to a short story could be cheaper than investing in a full screenplay.But even with the backing of a big name, many short stories optioned for film will struggle to be made. Projects that never make it to production are not unusual in film, where projects go through complex development and approval processes. Jasper DeWitt’s Reddit story The Patient Who Nearly Drove Me Out of Medicine, optioned by Ryan Reynolds in 2018, is one of many stories acquired this way yet to start production, along with Cote’s and Kliewer’s.What is clear is that short stories are perfect material for film adaptation. A short story focuses on a single situation, turning point or crisis. This brevity makes it especially adaptable, while novels often need to be compressed for the screen. Seen in this way, this trend is a new version of an old process. If there is a risk, it’s that writers may feel pressure to write for “likes” and the algorithm. It’s not the end of the short story, but another reminder that literary forms are shaped by the media systems they circulate in. 5 of the best short stories on filmSome of cinema’s most memorable films began as short stories. Here are five of our favourites.1. Rear Window (It Had to be Murder)It Had to Be Murder by Cornell Woolrich, first published in Dime Detective Magazine, provides the premise for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 classic, Rear Window. The short story is about a man confined to his apartment, who suspects a neighbour has committed murder after he observes strange behaviour across the courtyard. Woolrich’s text is lean and restricted to the protagonist’s point of view, with clues gradually dropped in. Hitchcock retains this restricted vantage point but elaborates it into a dense visual world. He turns the courtyard into a kind of stage where multiple narratives unfold. Adding a romantic subplot and the glamorous figure of Lisa (played by Grace Kelly) ramps up the intrigue. Hitchcock also turned to a short story by Daphne Du Maurier as the inspiration for his 1963 thriller The Birds. Rear Window, based on a short story, added a romantic subplot for the screen. 2. The Shawshank Redemption (Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption)Stephen King’s novella, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, was the inspiration for Frank Darabont’s 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption. The film largely follows the novella’s plot about the wrongful imprisonment of banker Andy Dufresne and his friendship with fellow inmate Red, while amplifying key motifs like institutionalisation, hope and the possibility of moral integrity under brutal conditions. The adaptation gives more screen time to Andy’s quiet acts of resistance: building a library, playing opera over the loudspeakers. And it uses voice over to preserve aspects of Red’s narration, while exploiting the visual power of enclosed spaces and the climactic escape. 3. Jindabyne (So Much Water So Close to Home)Raymond Carver’s short story So Much Water So Close to Home was adapted into Ray Lawrence’s 2006 Australian film Jindabyne. Carver’s original story presents a disturbing moral failure: four men discover a young woman’s body while on a fishing trip, but continue fishing before reporting the death. The story is unsettling, focusing on the emotional aftermath within one marriage. Jindabyne relocates this premise to Australia’s rural New South Wales and expands the story’s ethical questions by making the discovered body that of an Aboriginal woman. This change allows the film to explore broader questions of responsibility, silence, race, masculinity and national unease. Jindabyne relocates Raymond Carver’s short story to Australia, making the discovered body that of an Aboriginal woman. IMDB 4. Brokeback MountainBrokeback Mountain, by E. Annie Proulx, was originally published in The New Yorker and later adapted into a 2005 film by Ang Lee. Proulx’s original is spare and unsentimental, tracking the decades-long, intermittent relationship between ranch hands Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist. Its tight third-person narrative summarises years in a few paragraphs. The screenplay focuses on the Wyoming landscapes and recurring visual motifs (such as the main characters’ shirts hanging side by side in the wardrobe), demonstrating how a short story can be expanded into an emotionally and visually rich feature. 5. Burning (Barn Burning)Haruki Murakami’s Barn Burning is a disconcerting tale about a young man, an enigmatic woman and her new boyfriend who claims to burn barns as a hobby. The narrative is full of gaps and unresolved suggestions, typical of Murakami’s unique blend of the mundane and uncanny. Lee Chang-dong’s 2018 film Burning relocates the story to South Korea. It introduces fiery class tension between the protagonist and the wealthy boyfriend, whose crimes extend beyond barn burning. As an adaptation, it shows how the short story can be culturally and politically re-situated, without losing its original sense of mystery and emotional uncertainty.The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.