Neill Blomkamp
There’s a lot of hard work under the hood of Gran Turismo that narrowly crosses the finish line of a compelling racing film.
A young woman unleashes terrifying demons when supernatural forces at the root of a decades-old rift between mother and daughter are revealed.
In our latest collaboration, we discuss cinematic worlds we want to live in, ranging from John Ford’s Westerns to Jacques Demy’s musicals.
Neil Blomkamp is still a relatively new director in the game, though he has now done three movies. His first, District 9, is an intensely original feature, focusing on the subject of extraterrestrials who have come to Earth and suffer to live alongside the community of South Africa. It is at once both entertaining and politically charged, and was so well-received upon its release that it was even nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, a very rare accomplishment for a sci-fi.
Back in January Neill Blomkamp, the director of District 9, Elysium and the forthcoming Chappie posted online some intriguing fan/concept art for an as-yet-announced project related to the now floundering Alien franchise. The art featured some very intriguing illustrations of not only Sigourney Weaver as an almost fully evolved Ripley/xenomorph hybrid but also Michael Biehn as a battle scarred Corporal Hicks. At the time nobody knew what they were for:
Technology in the last few decades has grown by leaps and bounds. Very few could fathom the thought of a wireless telephone or even a smart phone during the lifetime of Alexander Graham Bell. Now we have the internet, various devices that require the internet, and soon enough, replacements for those who use the internet and related devices.
In Elysium, the world has gone to shit. It is heavily polluted and poverty has risen to extremely high levels – the ghettos stretch as far as you can see. This is where the poor working class lives.
Neill Blomkamp’s upcoming movie Elysium is themed with the fear of the other and the poor. Matt Damon takes on the battle for equality in an exoskeleton.