Amongst all the high-profile tentpole releases like Trek and Terminator, one film has stealthily been infiltrating our brains – District 9 .
The sci-fi stare into a world where aliens arrive on Earth only to become second-class citizens provoking fear and dis💜trust among their🎃 human neighbours is the brain child of director Neill Blomkamp and arrives in cinemas this September.
So far, it has been spreading viral tentacles out across the web and last week finall🅰y released a trailer. Could this be the quiet sleeper hit of the summer? Or at least as quiet as any film with Peter Jackson as a produceౠr…
We d✱ecided to dig into what’s known so far…[page-break]
It’s happening now because the Halo film collapsed
Back in 2005, Peter Jackson picked Blomkam♌p to make the first film based on the Halo console franchise.
While the movie had been announced with much fanfare and PR hype (including a Master Chief-cost𝔍umed lackey personally delivering the script to various movie studios), the project languished in development despite a quick pick-up from Universal and Fox.
The budge🅘t began to inflate even as various script drafts were cranked out, and eventually the film was shut down.
"What happened was t🌺his: Universal, on behalf of both studios, aske🌠d for a meeting with the filmmakers just prior to the due date of a significant payment," says Peter Jackson’s development executive, Ken Kamins.
"Basically, they said that in order to move forward with the film, the filmmakers had to significantly reduce their deals. They waited until the last minute to have this conversation. Peter and Fran, after speaking with their producing partners and with 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Microsoft and Bungie, respectfully declined."
Blomkamp would direct three short H🍷alo ads for the franchise’s latest games, but Halo remains in limbo. Jackson, meanwhile, was ready to move on: “Okay," he apparently told the helmer. "Let's just make a cool movie fꦺrom an original script."
The result? S▨omething new from something old…[page-break]
It’s based on Neill Blomkamp’s sci-fi short
In 2005, director Neill B𓃲lomkamp – usually to be found shooting adverts and music videos – wrote and ꦐfilmed a short film called Alive In Joburg.
Blomkamp, who grew up in Vancouver but was born in South Africa, came up with a new, Apartheid-examining take on the type o📖f story put forward in Alien Nation.
The story finds extraterrestrial creatures – that first arrived in 1990 – attempting to infiltrate the Earth. Instead of co🦩ming in with laser cannons blazing, they allowed themselves to be subjugated and rendered second-class citizens.
The docu-drama format brin🌄gs Cloverfield to mind, despite Joburg having been made before JJ Abrams and co began work on t𒀰heir monster mash.
So what is it, exactly?[page-break]
It’s not Cloverfield: The Second Coming
''It's not somebody run✱ning around with a camera, filming everything,'' Jackson told Entertainment Weekဣly. ''We have a mixture of documentary and dramatized scenes.''
“Part of the fun is learning how the alien society has taken its lead from Earth soᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚciety and from its own original thoughts. The film has this documentary rawness𝓡 to it,” he tells Rolling Stone.
“It's original, which is good, because th𝕴e film industry today only wants to remake every 70's TV show and superhero graphic novel. District 9 is not your typical summer film."
Technically, it’s a remake of Joburg, but we’re promised that it’s different enough to count. And it has🌄 plenty of resonance for its🌟 creator.[page-break]
It hits home for Blomkamp
Like Alive In Joburg, District 9 tacklesꦉ themes and ideas 𝓡drawn directly from the director’s birthplace.
“I was a science-fiction nut when I was growingജ up in Johannesburg.” he tells Rolling Stone. “I just wanted to see that kind of imagery in a third world setting with the complex poliไtical history of South Africa. I'm not trying to beat people over the head.”
"These aliens arrived 20 years ago in 💃a dead, derelict mothership, which hovers above Johannesburg. It's enormous, like the size of 10 football fields,” Jackson explains.
At first, all seems exciting, as the stranded aliens possess weapons that every government on Ea🎉rth would like to get their hands on. But things quickly go downhill.
“The aliens have ended up in a Soweto-style township beneath the ship. It's clear that they're not really integrating into society. T🌃hey like to scavenge 🌠things, rip up train tracks.
“So the authorities shift them 200 miles away, into the African belt. They've built a concentration camp. The residents of Joburg w💝ant them gone."
But just because it has otherworldly visitors, don’t go expe🍌cting OTT spectacle…[page-break]
It has subtle effects
While the trailer shows off some impressive, effective visuals, don’t go expecting huge battles and w🔯aves of invaders. At leas﷽t, not to begin with…
"The film has almost a disregard for visual effects,” says Jacks♑on. “Like, the aliens are so mundane and so part of the geography that you don't really focus on them at all," which is what makes this so unique.
"Neill has built these teasing glimpses of alien꧟ culture, like gangs that spring up among them.”
Blomkamp got his start at 16 as an animator and has since gone on to create shorts - like Joburg and robo-police story Tetra Vaal🐼 – alongside ads for companies like Citroen, so it seems onl♈y natural that he has a handle on producing effects-heavy films on a tight budget.
A🧸nd given t🍌he swift collapse of Halo, you can bet that D-9’s purse strings were tightly held.
Still, the trailer (above) looks great, and we𝓀&rsqu🌠o;ve been waiting for this for ages, ever since we got our first, viral look at the pic…[page-break]
It’s been viral for ages
While the teaser traile𓃲r is now online, the ad campaign for District 9 has been in ☂full swing for months.
The first hints about the 💮movie began to appear at last year’s San Diego Comic Cꦗon in July.
The early posters and banners offered links to the film’s official site, but se✃veral other locat൲ions have also sprouted up.
The Corporation appears to be a benevolent organisation aiming to strengthen the ties between humans and their alien neighbours – called Po🌺leepkwa in Alive In Joburg, ꦓbut not yet named in any of D-9’s material.
But all is not as it seems, since there’s also the blog page , which contends that the company is instead marginalising the mis🐷treating the extraterrestrial creatures.
Finally, there’s , which on the surface appears to be a harmless education site for the ankle biters, before you realise that it’s run🐲 by MNU…
We’re sure that there will be more, Dark Knight-style as t🅺he year progresses. For now, enjoy the protest video below…
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