Watch Tim Miller's Short Film That Helped Him Land 'Deadpool'

Tim Miller has been working in visual-effects for more than 20 years. The Deadpool director co-founded Blur Studio back in 1995, and years ago the company worked on a short film for the DC Universe Online game. Miller directed the short, which impressed the executives at 20th Century Fox enough to consider him for Deadpool.

Below, watch Batman, Superman, The Flash, and more in a 6-minute short.

The short film, DC Universe Online, premiered at San Diego Comic Con. It's a multiplayer online role-playing game, in which you can choose to fight in Gotham or Metropolis. The game features DC icons, and in this video, you can see some of them working together to defeat Lex Luthor.

Here's the DC Universe Online trailer (via Geek Tyrant):

Following the debut of the short film, Miller got a call from 20th Century Fox. Initially, he was brought in to assist with X-Men: First Class, but the experience was a positive one, so someone at the studio brought up Deadpool to him. Speaking with Time Out Dubai, Miller discussed how the short film helped get him the Deadpool gig:

The executive at Fox who'd been working on X-Men: First Class with Matthew Vaughn had seen a piece I'd done for a DC Universe project, which had a lot of superhero action. He thought X-Men: First Class could use some help with working out the detailed action choreography, so I was brought on to help with that. He came down and we met, and by the end of that meeting he said, "You know, I think you should really be directing your own film. You're a first-timer so I can't get you on anything big, but we have this other movie... Deadpool. Are you interested?" I'd read the script already and I thought it was great, so I jumped at the chance. And then there were a whole series of hurdles to jump over, to make sure Ryan liked me, to make sure the producer liked me, and to make sure I wasn't some kind of crazy weirdo.

And it ended up being a happy ending for Miller, Reynolds, and all involved, because Miller was absolutely the right director for the critical and box-office hit. His special effects background certainly helped stretch the budget, which is reported to be just under $60 million, and, more importantly than the visual effects, he made a character-driven, faithful adaptation of Deadpool. Thankfully, Miller is likely to return for the sequel.

Deadpool is now in theaters.