If the name Neill Blomkamp rings with a certain familiarity, that's because this young, untested writer/director once found himself holding the reigns to what could either have been the greatest, or worst, video game film adaptation of all time, a collaboration with Peter Jackson and WETA to make a film version of the legendary video game series, Halo. Unfortunately, or fortunately, that reality failed to materialize, and only a few short film projects used as viral marketing and hype were created by Blomkamp and released prior to the Xbox 360 title Halo 3. Even then, the shorts were criticized for looking "low budget" and "too real," which, in my opinion, is utter tosh.
Well it looks like ol' PJ wasn't quite done with the young upstart, and coming out "Summer of 2009" will be a feature length science fiction film entitled District 9, which looks to be an expansion his short film Alive in Joburg, a short about impoverished and stranded alien refugees which take up residence in the slums of an African city. I absolutely adore Blomkamp's mixing of sci-fi imagery with stock footage to form a sort of documentary style of narrative presentation, like news footage from some bizarre alternate reality. I got chills watching this trailer and couldn't be more excited to present it to you now. Who knows, if this is Blomkamp's "trial run" for a Halo movie, we just may see some Master Chief on the silver screen in the future.
Pro tip: Want to see this in a theatre for the first time? Check it out in front of X-Men Origins: Wolverine.