District 9 and Neill Blomkamp: You’ve seen it and him before, you just don’t know it
First, check out the new trailer for director Neill Blomkamp’s (yeah, that’s Neill with two “L’s”) upcoming film “District 9″, in which extraterrestrials have become refugees in South Africa, and are forced to live in slum-like conditions until they find a kindred spirit in a government agent that is exposed to their biotechnology. It’s an interesting twist on “alien movies”. Some people (yours truly included) will find the trailer oddly familiar.
This trailer was an update from the very first teaser that came out, in which the interrogated alien was blurred out, and wasn’t translated. The entire film is based on Neil Blomkamp’s 2005 short entitled “Alive in Joburg” (about the exact same thing: alien refugees in Johannesburg, Africa). The trailer shares with the short, similarities in style and visual effects (Neil Blomkamp was an effects guy before “making it big”. Whatever you do, however, do not go to the website listed at the end of “Alive in Joburg” credits. It is not a site featuring any snazzy effects work. It is a sex toy site. Just… doin’ my job). Check out the short below:
In addition to this, you’ve probably seen Blomkamp’s work in other youtube phenom videos, most notably those arriving in celebration of the release of Halo 3 (and the much anticipated and maligned Halo movie).
Blomkamp is also responsible for those famous Citroen dancing car commercials, and has clearly shown a large body of impressive effects work. Check out another nifty little video he made:
The District 9 film has also spawned some “viral” sites (though they’re not very subtle about the purpose of the site… it kind of defeats the purpose of creating a blog in the name of an alien when the bottom of the page reads “Experience the District 9 movie experience”) which are becoming increasingly popular. You can check them all out.
Tags: alive in joburg, disctrict 9, halo 3, movie, Neil, Neill Blomkamp, short film, trailer