Based on the short film Alive in Jorburg and directed by Neill Blomkamp, who was slated to direct the Halo movie once upon a time.
Saw the preview at Wolverine. I loved it and want to see this movie. I hope it keeps the documentary feel.
Alive in Joburg is an amazingly effective short film. This just moved to the top of my Must See list.
Hot damn!
Just saw the trailer…IN.
I hope this gets distribution to the third world, so I can see it without stealing it.
The short was great - and this looks to be a decent expansion.
Budgeted at $30 million, which feels low for a Jackson film.
Well, it’s not a Jackson film, it’s a first-time director supported by Jackson.
Jackson had that between the pillows in his couch.
wow, this looks great. Can’t wait.
Though it does seem like a bit of an Alien Nation remake.
— Alan
Alien Nation couldn’t carry District 9’s jockstrap.
Actually his first movies must have been made with 3000$.
Anyway, liked the trailer, reminded me of Children of Men in some ways.
Just watched Alive in Joburg and wow, was totally bored and annoyed that nothing was explained. People were complaining that everything was worse now that the aliens showed up. There was even a line about murder and rape being way up. Were the aliens raping humans? Was the existance of aliens cause society to break down?
All I saw were some squid face people living in huts, and flying their space ships really low.
Whereas that’s what I liked about AiJ: it doesn’t offer you any pat explanations or attempts at Deep Insights, it just provides glimpses into a tense situation and lets viewers draw their own inferences. I strongly suspect it’s intended as a parable about modern South Africa’s internal tensions, but I’m nowhere near knowledgeable enough to judge it on those grounds.
That said, what works for a 6 or 7-minute short film won’t hold up for 2 hours. I certainly expect District 9 to offer more meat.
I love the accents :)
I’m really looking for to seeing this!
There is so much ‘social commentary’ in “Alive in Joburg”, from the living conditions, lack of electricity, water, etc to the ‘train surfers’, even back to apartheid…
What he has done there is give normal people ‘alien’ faces and done a piece on their daily lives.
At some stage I predict District-9 causing a bit of a rumpus.
Initially I thought District-9 was going to be a movie about the xenophobia we experience here recently. Turns out it is, but in a slightly subtler manner.
So this is what these kids are up to now that Halo is shelved.
Looks good, but wasn’t quite what I was expecting after the teaser.
That’s looking more interesting to me than it was before.