What’s it like for your personal mentor to be Peter Jackson? Neill Blomkamp is living that fantasy, as the director earned a fan of the “Lord Of The Rings” helmer based on a series of short films. Jackson took Blomkamp under his wing while shepherding the megabudgeted videogame adaptation “Halo” to the silver screen, but the sticking point in the film being made was entrusting the production to a neophyte director in Blomkamp, who executives were not entirely comfortable with.
With “Halo” dead, however, Blomkamp has gone back to one of his shorts, “Alive In Joburg,” to inspire the $30 million budgeted science fiction film “District 9.” Set for release this August, this under the radar picture, teased in front of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” this weekend, expands on the rather impressive short (click here to see it on Google Video) to tell the story of extraterrestrials visiting Africa during the 1990 apartheid period and the ensuing hostility they are met with. Apparently the aliens are deemed uncooperative and are forced into a South African township, leading to many potential apartheid metaphors.
The idea of a mockumentary-style to this story does worry us a bit, as does the somewhat dicey comparison of slithery aliens and opressed Africans, but we’d be lying if we said this didn’t look like a very unusual, original theatrical experience. The seal of approval from Peter Jackson as a producer normally wouldn’t mean all that much, but the fact that Jackson successfully shut down a franchise as potentially massive as “Halo” just because his golden boy wasn’t allowed to shine is a helluva recommendation.
