Tag: District 9

Posted on in Film News, News

Neill Blomkamp Still Wants To Make More ‘Elysium’ Movies: Will He Make His Kruger Spinoff?

Neill Blomkamp is back to making movies after a hiatus after multiple projects not coming together (Alien 5, RoboCop Returns, Greenland), focusing on his Oats Studios shorts, and attempting to put together a new original project, Inferno.

The filmmaker is currently developing District 10, a sequel to his debut film District 9. That isn’t the only sci-fi project he wants to return to explore. While promoting his new movie Demonic, he spoke with The Playlist on their podcast and briefly voiced his desire to return to the world of Elysium.

“I would love to do more films in the world of Elysium. I love the setup of that world. The world that it puts forward is very interesting to me.”

ELYSIUM – In the year 2154, humanity is sharply divided between two classes of people: The ultrarich live aboard a luxurious space station called Elysium, and the rest live a hardscrabble existence in Earth’s ruins. His life hanging in the balance, a man named Max (Matt Damon) agrees to undertake a dangerous mission that could bring equality to the population, but Secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster) vows to preserve the pampered lifestyle of Elysium’s citizens, no matter what the cost.

We already have idea what he’d like to tackle in follow-up.

In 2016, Neill Blomkamp mentioned to Empire the idea of revisiting the Agent Kruger character in a low-budget spinoff, a violent mercenary (played by District 9’s Sharlto Copley) that is hired to do the dirty work for Elysium. He eventually turned into main antagonist of the original film once Jodie Foster’s character was killed-off.

“I did ask [Media Rights Capital?] who paid for Elysium, I was like ‘what if you did a lower budget of this where Kruger is the lead character and is absolutely non-arc, don’t expect the character to to arc, he just doesn’t, he just does a bunch of shit that’s awesome’ and he was like ‘that does sound like that could be cool.'”

It’ll be interesting to see if he’ll tackle a Kruger-focused prequel or a direct sequel.

You can listen to that full interview below.

SOURCE: THE PLAYLIST

Posted on in Film News, News

Neill Blomkamp Says ‘District 10’ Has A Connection To American History

Filmmaker Neill Blomkamp hasn’t much luck trying to put together a big studio film as he exited a string of movies he tried to develop such a purposed “Alien 5 (second incarnation) starring Sigourney Weaver, a direct sequel to the original RoboCop with “RoboCop Returns,” and most recently he was the original director of “Greenland before Ric Roman Waugh was brought on. 

Blomkamp has been not-so-quietly developing a sequel to his big hit film, District 9, with his co-writer and wife Terri Tatchell (“District 9,” “Chappie“) and has given us an update of sorts. 

The original sci-fi film produced by Peter Jackson was an obvious allegory to South Africa’s apartheid, and it looks like “District 10” will continue that political/sociological edge to it as the filmmaker revealed to IGN during an interview this month the film will focus on “a topic in American history.”

Aliens, referred to with the slur “prawn,” arrived in South Africa thirty years ago, and when they are relocated out of the slum things go bad quickly. Sharlto Copley‘s Wikus van de Merwe dowses himself with alien fuel that eventually transforms him into an alien and is made assurances that if he helps another alien get to the main ship, he’ll return with the technology to turn him back into a human. 

Blomkamp continued, “That script continues to be written. It’s looking good. It took a decade to figure out, to come up with a reason why to make that film as opposed to just make a sequel.”

It’s possible that the treatment of Native Americans or African-Americans could be the crux of the sequel, but that is pure speculation based on the last film spotlighting European colonialism.

His next release will be the horror flick Denomic and may end up returning to complete Inferno starring fellow Canadian Taylor Kitsch.

DISTRICT 9 – Thirty years ago, aliens arrive on Earth — not to conquer or give aid, but — to find refuge from their dying planet. Separated from humans in a South African area called District 9, the aliens are managed by Multi-National United, which is unconcerned with the aliens’ welfare but will do anything to master their advanced technology. When a company field agent (Sharlto Copley) contracts a mysterious virus that begins to alter his DNA, there is only one place he can hide: District 9.

SOURCE: IGN

Posted on in Film News

Neill Blomkamp Teases Interest In Making A ‘Starship Troopers’ Movie

Today, we learned that District 9 director Neill Blomkamp is working on a script for a sequel to his debut sci-fi action film, titled District 10. That’s not the only thing he teased on Twitter. A fan asked him if he’d make a Starship Troopers film and candidly seemed to agree with him with “I’ll do it”, while dismissing someone else’s call to do something in the Star Wars universe.

https://twitter.com/NeillBlomkamp/status/1365163570472701952
https://twitter.com/NeillBlomkamp/status/1365164612472070147

Interestingly, a Starship Troopers reboot was announced back in 2016 at Sony Pictures as first revealed by The Hollywood Reporter. The bad news was that producer Neal H. Moritz is attached, who was behind the horribly generic PG-13 remakes of RoboCop and Total Recall. Along with the screenwriters behind the long forgotten Baywatch movie.

Five years later and there really hasn’t been a concrete update on the project.

Starship Troopers was based on the novel by Robert A. Heinlein, the book helped inspire James Cameron’s Colonial Marines in Aliens and Microsoft’s Halo franchise. It landed a Japanese anime, feature film from director Paul Verhoeven released in 1997, a kids CGI animated series, multiple low-budget film sequels, and animated projects.

It’s worth mentioning the Blomkamp hasn’t had the best luck when trying to turn existing IP into feature films as he was originally set to make his film debut with 20th Century Fox’s Halo film before pivoting to District 9. More recently he exited 20th Century Fox’s Alien 5 (a direct sequel to James Cameron’s Aliens) and MGM Studios’ RoboCop Returns (a direct sequel to Paul Verhoeven’s original) before moving on to his own stuff.

Neill would certainly be a strong pick for a new Starship Troopers film and given the lack of status updates from Sony it doesn’t sound like they’re about get that earlier reboot incarnation into production anytime soon. Then again, tweeting interest doesn’t mean it will come together but teasing stuff on social media is how Blomkamp eventually got a development deal for Alien 5 at Fox.

STARSHIP TROOPERS – In the distant future, the Earth is at war with a race of giant alien insects. Little is known about the Bugs except that they are intent on the eradication of all human life. But there was a time before the war… A Mobile Infantry travels to distant alien planets to take the war to the Bugs. They are a ruthless enemy with only one mission: Survival of their species no matter what the cost…

SOURCE: NEILL BLOMKAMP

Posted on in Film News

‘District 9’ Sequel ‘District 10’ Currently Being Written According To Neill Blomkamp

Fans of Neill Blomkamp’s debut film District 9 have been patiently waiting for a sequel as the end of original film finished on a cliffhanger on the promise of Wikus being transformed back into a human.

The filmmaker has revealed on Twitter that they’ve started work on the sequel’s script with himself, his wife Terri Tatchell (co-wrote the original) and Sharlto Copley working on it.

https://twitter.com/NeillBlomkamp/status/1365167374421225473

It’s unknown at this point if Peter Jackson’s WingNut Films or Sony Pictures will be involved. We know that Neill had a falling out with the head of Sony Pictures, Tom Rothman, over the failed film adaptation of Halo when Tom was the head of 20th Century Fox. Blomkamp stopped working with Sony Pictures conveniently around the same time Rothman joined the studio and attempted to make Alien 5 at Rothman’s former studio 20th Century Fox.

DISTRICT 9 – Thirty years ago, aliens arrive on Earth — not to conquer or give aid, but — to find refuge from their dying planet. Separated from humans in a South African area called District 9, the aliens are managed by Multi-National United, which is unconcerned with the aliens’ welfare but will do anything to master their advanced technology. When a company field agent (Sharlto Copley) contracts a mysterious virus that begins to alter his DNA, there is only one place he can hide: District 9.

SOURCE: NEILL BLOMKAMP

Posted on in Film News

Neill Blomkamp Secretly Shot An Untitled Supernatural Horror Movie For AGC Studios Over The Summer – His First Feature Film In 5 Years

District 9’s Neill Blomkamp has finally shot a follow-up to his film Chappie!

Neill has had a long journey with multiple mishaps and projects that never quite happened. For whatever reason films such as Alien 5, RoboCop Returns, Greenland, and his upcoming film Inferno (delayed to 2021) just didn’t come together over the years.

However, there is news he’s finally finished a new feature film. Neill recently he shot an untitled sci-fi horror film over the summer in British Columbia, Canada (where Neill’s Oats Studios is located) according to Deadline with the new film being set for AGC Studios.

They also add they’re expected to be finished by the spring of 2021 and that cinematographer Byron Kopman worked on the horror project.

Details are scarce but this seems to be the only post Neill really made about the project, on Instagram at least.

This would be the first feature film for Neill in five years since he released Chappie back in 2015. Blomkamp had originally planned to shoot his action horror film Inferno (also at AGC Studios) in Albuquerque, New Mexico this year starring Taylor Kitsch (John Carter, True Detective) but that has been delayed to 2021. Blomkamp has been keeping himself busy shooting short films for Oats Studios alongside commercials.

AGC Studios is beyond handful of upcoming films including Roland Emmerich’s Moonfall for Lionsgate and the pandemic heist film Lockdown from director Doug Liman (Edge of Tomorrow, Chaos Walking) that stars Anne Hathaway, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Ben Stiller that landed at HBO Max. They also put together the sci-fi action film Universe’s Most Wanted with Dave Bautista (Blade Runner 2049, Spectre, Guardians of The Galaxy) and Brad Peyton directing.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in News

Directors Neill Blomkamp and Jordan Vogt-Roberts Tease A Future Collaboration?

Earlier in the month, while praising the work of fellow director Neill Blomkamp on District 9, Jordan Vogt-Roberts (Kong: Skull Island) teased that he’d love to work on something together in the future. 

VOGT-ROBERTS: “Rewatching Neill Blomkamp’s DISTRICT 9. Without a doubt a modern classic. Still in awe of what he pulled off all these years later. Still a gold standard for VFX. Still explosive and brilliant. One day I hope to mind-meld with this man.”

Blomkamp responding to the tweet with “I’m down”. 

https://twitter.com/NeillBlomkamp/status/1275620892207222784

Nothing more than a hint but it’s exciting none-the-less. 

Jordan has a couple of projects in the works including a live-action adaptation of the beloved military espionage video game series Metal Gear Solid for Sony Pictures. A new draft of the script has been completed but still has yet to be given an official greenlight from the studio. 

Neill Blomkamp has been having a rough time securing his next feature film bouncing from Alien 5 to RoboCop Returns to Greenland to his latest original project, a horror film titled Inferno which is expected to begin shooting soon in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 

Both share a love for video games having directed live-action trailers for Anthem and Destiny 2.

SOURCE: TWITTER