District 9 Rises From Ashes of Halo
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2009/07/district-9-rises-from-ashes-of-halo/
SAN DIEGO — Peter Jackson and Neill Blomkamp were in New Zealand three years ago doing preproduction on what they thought was going to be the big-budget movie adaptation of Halo. Instead, they wound up giving birth to District 9. Produced by Jackson and directed by Blomkamp, the much-anticipated science fiction-with-a-message movie hit theaters Aug. 14.
In a press conference Friday, Jackson explained the project’s genesis. “When Halo suddenly died, it was a bit of a shock but we thought: Let’s make an original, low-budget film — something where we won’t have to deal with a lot of studio politics.”
Alive in Jo’Burg, a short faux documentary shot by South African native Blomkamp in Johannesburg a few years earlier, filled the bill. District 9 expands on the short film’s premise: that aliens from outer space are treated just as poorly as illegal immigrants. “We wanted to tell a sort of small, contained story set against an epic background,” said Blomkamp.
District 9 marks the feature film debut of Blomkamp, who is not widely known to the general movie-going audience. The cast, including Blomkamp’s childhood friend Sharito Copley, also lacks marquee names. To boost awareness, Sony’s marketing department produced an unusually intriguing series of trailers. “The guys from Sony flew out to visit us with this whole campaign that really captured the essence of the film, which is, I suppose, about segregation,” Blomkamp said.