Futurology Films

One of my all time favourite movies of 2009 was the science fiction film District 9. District 9 was co-written and directed by Neill Blomkamp and produced by the legend Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham. To sum the movie up; it is about an extraterrestrial race (aliens to be more direct) that are forced to live in a slum district in South Africa.

The movie tackles the themes of apartheid, xenophobia and social segregation and was inspired by the actual real life events that took place in District Six in Cape Town during the apartheid era. The film was actually adapted from a six minute short film called “Alive in Joburg” which was made in 2005 and was also directed by Neill Blomkamp and released by Spy Films.

Anyway its 2010 and District 9 was so last year. However the films ambiguous open ending has paved the way for an up and coming sequel or perhaps a prequel. Let’s just hope they don’t call it District 10 as that would just be a no brainier and have us wondering whether the quality could match the original and whether we have a flop on our hands that is just trying to cash in on the original films success.

But don’t threat as I think we may generally have another Gem to come from Neill Blomkamp and not some typical traditional Hollywood version of the sequel. Let’s hope Peter Jackson gets on board again too.

The actor Sharlto Copley who plays Wikus Van De Merwe was recently interviewed in Empire Magazine and confirmed that Neill Blomkamp aims to do the film in a few years time after his current ongoing commitments. Sharlto Copley, fresh from his role in the new A-Team movie as Capt. H.M. "Howling Mad" Murdock (and I might add that I’m really looking forward to this), stated that the new sequel/prequel could go in so many different directions. There’s a whole universe of direction apparently according to Copley who then went on to say that Neil is actually very interested in prequels as well. Does this mean the movie will be a prequel or we have that to come after the sequel?

My advice (not that it will be worth anything) is please don’t turn it into a franchise of movies and tarnish the mastery of the original. The Matrix has already done a good job of that and hopefully showed directors the route NOT to go down as it just gets silly and lets just not mention Rocky. Also please don’t let me see the “District 8 to 15” box set in the shops in the foreseeable future. Oh and finally if the TV people come knocking for an adapted TV version……. RUN….run like Forest Gump and don’t stop.