Writer/director Neill Blomkamp’s long-awaited return to the world of District 9 won’t make the ‘bigger is better’ mistake.
To say we’re looking forward to District 10, Neill Blomkamp’s return to the world of humans and aliens co-existing in the uneasiest of fashions, is something of an understatement. Without giving anything away, District 9 ended on a wonderful cliffhanger, whilst the film itself is one of the more original and inventive science fiction films we’ve seen since the turn of the century. It proved not only a box office hit, but a Best Picture Oscar nominee too.
District 9 was staged in South Africa in a modern day setting, and following Blomkamp’s announcement that a follow-up was in the works, especially with the suggestions that the action might be taking place in America this time, it’s easy to imagine that the production and scale of the film might be bigger.
However, Blomkamp has been talking a little about his follow-up in the District series and he’s adamant that he’s not going to go down the route that many sequels take, of simply upping the scale in the belief that making everything bigger will somehow be an improvement.
Blomkamp has said that “I think the approach of the first film is correct; it’s just really a question of the script. If there’s slightly more stuff happening in the script, then you need slightly more money. But I think it would still be as stripped-down and bare bones as we could make it. That becomes more nimble and more creative, and personally, I like that.”
The filmmaker also briefly referenced his time spent trying to get sequels to existing blockbuster franchises such as RoboCop and Aliens off the ground, saying “I don’t think I feel more at home in the indie space. I think I feel more at home with ideas that are not based on large IP. Just fresh stuff, basically. It’s probably wise because there’s less pre-existing knowledge of what people think the IP should be”.
The script for District 10 is being written by Blomkamp, District 9 star Sharlto Copley and co-writer Terri Tatchell. Blomkamp’s currrent film, Demonic, comes out this week in the US, and at the end of the month in the UK.
We’ll bring you more news on this one as we hear it.
The Hollywood Reporter
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